Enhanced customer interaction channel systems and methods

ABSTRACT

A computer-implemented method, a server, and a computer use an enhanced customer interaction channel based on a predetermined payment key associated with a specific company and location. The predetermined payment key uniquely identifies the specific company and location and enables the enhanced customer interaction channel based on existing payment processing systems. The specific company may use the enhanced customer interaction channel to reach customers who were previously unknown to the specific company for a variety of purposes such as rewards, coupons, offers, product information, and the like.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)

The present non-provisional patent application/patent claims the benefitof priority of co-pending U.S. Provisional Patent Application No.61/550,900, filed on Oct. 24, 2011, and entitled “LINKING COMPANY ANDRECEIPT DATA WITH PAYMENT TRANSACTIONS,” the contents of which areincorporated in full by reference herein.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

Generally, the field of art of the present disclosure pertains topayment systems and methods, and more particularly, to an enhancedcustomer interaction channel where the identity of the customer may ormay not be known before a payment transaction begins and without prioracceptance, opt-in or participation of the customer with a merchant orseller desiring to utilize the channel.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

There exists a great deal of knowledge, experience, data and operationalexperience in the prior art surrounding the field generally known aselectronic payment transaction processing and the corresponding systemsand methods that operate the various electronic payment networks.Exemplary payment transactions systems include well-known brands such asVisa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express (a.k.a Amex), and othernetworks such as the Automated Clearinghouse (ACH) system operated bythe National Automated Clearinghouse Association (NACHA), paper checkand check image processing system, coupon redemption systems, customerloyalty or reward (aka ‘points’) systems and the like. Traditionally,these systems are intended to efficiently and securely facilitate thetransfer of monetary value from a buyer to a seller who provided aproduct, good, or service to the buyer for the agreed upon value amount.Typically the buyer and seller (or customer, business, or other entityrelationship) have utilized a variety of electronic transactionprocessing methods, electronic messages, electronic data formats,machine formats and the like to accomplish the value or payment transferand then typically they utilize a second separate system to deliver thephysical or digital item, good, or service to the buyer. Thus, theseelectronic payment transaction processing systems do not facilitate thetransfer of knowledge about the customer to the buyer and instead focuson monetary accuracy, speed, reliability, and being a guaranteed sourceof known good funds.

However, to facilitate future sales or to enhance existing or futuretransactions between a buyer and the seller, it would be advantageousfor the seller to know how to reach customers via a known goodtransaction information channel which exists outside of the payment orvalue transfer systems. Historically, sellers reached out orcommunicated to prospective customers via advertising and marketingsystems and methods which are separate from and distinct from thepayment processing channels or systems. Thus to drive sales and increasebusiness, a seller or company must know how to “reach” their existingcustomers or utilize broad reach mass market advertising and salesmethods with unsure or unproven results in terms of effectiveness inreaching the desired or targeted customer. This fact may be mitigatedwhen companies or sellers utilize channels which are based on personallyidentifiable data provided by their existing or previous customersduring a prior transaction. Systems which are based on voluntary,personal or identifiable customer data or knowledge that was gatheredprovided or agreed to by a customer during or after previoustransactions are generally considered or known as rewards programs orloyalty programs. These reward programs are seen as valuable bycustomers who wish to make repeat purchases from the same seller orcompany and historically companies utilize these systems to trackexisting customer behavior, patterns, preferences and generalstatistical knowledge about their customers for use in planning futuresales, marketing or various other business methods, goals or objectives.Even with these existing “loyalty or reward” type systems and methods,sellers or companies who wish to reach their previous customers mustdepend on personally identifiable data which has provided by thecustomer under a voluntary or “opt-in” process. Typically thisinformation is provided by their customer during previous salestransactions which may or not be provided to the company or sellerduring the payment transaction processing method used at the time oftheir prior purchase. Disadvantageously, “loyalty or reward” typesystems and methods require voluntary participation from previouscustomers and are not able to target new customers and those customerswho “opt-out.”

Based on the foregoing, it would be advantageous to have a new type ofengagement channel which could enhance the type, level and amount ofcommunication and data exchange between customers/buyers andsellers/companies. Such a new type of channel would overcome the unsureor unproven results associated with broad reach mass market advertisingand sales methods and the limited audience reach associated with“loyalty or reward” type systems and methods. Designing and developing anew engagement channel or system requires overcoming the errors,limitations or weaknesses of prior art, systems or methods which mayhave attempted similar results but failed to achieve them given theirinability to deal with the unpredictable and widely varying set of dataelements that may be produced by the various transaction processingsystems as well as the location of these systems within the paymenttransaction processing marketplace or the scope or reach of thesesystems not being universal such as the present invention.

There are existing business methods, patents or applications that areknown to those in the industry which attempt to do similar sounding butdifferent aspects of processing, matching, inspecting, sorting,organizing data and the like from customer and company transaction orpayment data. Some of the more notable of these prior art inventionswill be described herein in order to clearly differentiate the currentinvention from their similar sounding names, concepts or ideas. None ofthese existing or known systems or methods should be inferred to teach,suggest or make obvious any of the current inventions novel or keyaspects, ideas and inventive steps or elements.

US Patent Publication Number 2011/0022628, “Matching Merchant Names fromTransaction Data”, application Ser. No. 12/900,261 by Kramer. The Kramerreference describes a computer system process to determine a “matchedmerchant name” from transaction data. This method requires and dependson a previously “processed merchant name” from a “retrieved merchantname” in order to match the processed merchant name to one of acollection of “standard merchant names”. Further, it declares that “atleast one character of the retrieved merchant name may be altered toobtain the processed merchant name”—for example characters may bedeleted or ignored to make a match. Some of the key deficiencies of theKramer reference include:

1. The system described by Kramer relies on the fact that the merchantname retrieved from the payment data is used to derive the “standardmerchant name”, which is then associated with indicia information. Forinstance, the Kramer reference could derive “ABC” from the merchant nameof “ABC Store 100” which was retrieved from a set of transaction databecause the merchant name retrieved from the transaction data includes aminimum match on “ABC”. However, this prior art would not be able tofind a match or derive a standard merchant name if the merchant nameused in the transaction data was “12345” since it does not have anyportion of ABC in it.2. The Kramer reference does not contemplate or include the ability toidentify specific merchant locations from transaction data but simplythe broadest level of “merchant” name. In fact, the Kramer referencespecifically disregards location specific information, such as the storenumber, in order to derive a “standard merchant name”.3. The Kramer reference does not contemplate or include the ability toidentify specific devices used during transactions.4. The Kramer reference does not contemplate or include the ability toassociate categories with retrieved merchant name.5. The Kramer reference does not contemplate or include the ability toinclude Transaction Data or Customer receipt data as part of theindicia.6. The Kramer reference does not contemplate or include the ability touse an actual payment (i.e., Company Payment) to link a Merchant Nameand other data with a specific Company.7. The Kramer reference does not contemplate or include the ability touse Merchant Data from an Acquirer to identify and link Merchant Namewith a Company.8. The Kramer reference does not contemplate or include the ability tolink Product Data, such as user manuals and warranties, based on Productpurchases as part of a Transaction.9. The Kramer reference does not contemplate or include the ability todefine and process Rewards.10. The Kramer reference does not contemplate or include the ability tovalidate and process a Coupon or other type of marketing offer.11. The Kramer reference does not contemplate or include the ability toenrich indicia information.12. The Kramer reference does not contemplate or include the ability toshare indicia information outside the system.13. The Kramer reference has a limited operating position within thetransaction or payment eco-system and thus cannot operate at the scopeor level of the present inventions. For example, the system described inKramer does not contemplate operating on data from outside of a singlecard issuer operational or transactional perspective. That is, the scopeof its claims limit the matching to data from a single card issuer andit cannot operate across issuers, acquirers, merchants, third partyreward systems and the like, thus its scope and applicability arelimited and cannot operate in a manner or at a level as needed.

Additionally, another conventional solution includes U.S. Pat. No.7,908,170 by Asmar titled “System and Method for Facilitating CommercialTransactions” which provides a system that “provides vital marketinginformation to participating merchants and purchasing records tocustomers while offering the most efficient and effective system todeliver the best terms and conditions for the products and servicesrequested by customers”. Note that this system does not contemplatematching Merchant Names or IDs to transaction data nor does it providethe other embodiments or features as it depends on real-time approval ofa transaction at checkout. Another element of the prior art isUS2012/0084135 (application Ser. No. 12/896,442) by Nissan titled“System and Method for Tracking Transaction Records in a Network” whichprovides a system for “processing a transaction record of a transactionbetween a merchant and a user”. This system updates Customer recordsbased on specified and well defined terminals which enable theprocessing of transaction sales data by Merchants who participate in the“network” provided by this invention. Note that this method againrequires real-time participation in the “checkout” transaction byspecified hardware or terminals that connect to a proprietary network.This method cannot work with data generated outside of the network norcan it work with data after the fact as may be enabled by a Customerstatement provider. Finally, there is US2008/0103912 (application Ser.No. 11/924,323) by Naccache which describes a “Method of ProvidingTransaction Data, Terminal, Transaction Method, Method of Enhancing BankStatements, Server, Signals and Computer Program Products CorrespondingThereto” which as the name implies requires a specialized terminal ordevice to generate enhanced data for statements such as pictures orimages. The method provides “for each transaction a statement linecontaining at least one reference” for a specified transaction with theimage being provided of the merchant store exterior, location and oritem purchased. This system cannot work with Transaction data generatedby outside systems and methods nor can it provide the other benefits.

As it can be seen by those of ordinary skill in the art, these existingsystems, methods and well known prior art do not utilize the uniquemethod to identify Customers based on known Company identifiers based ontransaction data. Additionally, these existing systems cannot providethe same level of interaction with customers whether they are known orunknown and they cannot create the interactive and real-time Customerinteraction or engagement channel.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In an exemplary embodiment, a computer-implemented method includesdetermining a payment key associated with a specific company, locationand device, wherein the payment key includes one or more attributes ofPayment Data, Company Payment Data or Merchant Data, either in a nativeform or in a derivative form, that is configured to uniquely identifythe specific company, location and device; determining transaction datamatches the payment key thereby indicating a customer had a transactionwith the specific company at the location; creating an engagementchannel between the customer and the specific company based on thematching of the transaction data and the payment key; and providingunique or enhanced data to the customer by the specific company throughthe engagement channel, wherein the data includes one of data related toa transaction associated with the transaction data and or data relatedto a future transaction

In another exemplary embodiment, a server includes a network interfacecommunicatively coupled to at least one customer and at least onecompany; a processor communicatively coupled to the network interface;and memory storing instructions that, when executed, cause the processorto: register a specific company and location; derive a payment keyassociated with the specific company and location, wherein the paymentkey includes one or more attributes of Payment Data, Company PaymentData or Merchant Data, either in a native form or in a derivative form,that is configured to uniquely identify the specific company and thelocation; receive an indication from a customer that transaction datamatches the payment key thereby indicating the customer had atransaction with the specific company at the location; create anengagement channel between the customer and the specific company basedon the matching of the transaction data and the payment key; providedata to the customer by the specific company through the engagementchannel, wherein the data includes one of data related to a transactionassociated with the transaction data and or data related to a futuretransaction.

In yet another exemplary embodiment, a computer includes a networkinterface communicatively coupled to a server on a network; a processorcommunicatively coupled to the network interface; and memory storinginstructions that, when executed, cause the processor to: execute anapplication or browser add-in; display transaction data associated witha transaction between a customer and a specific company and location;match the transaction data to a predetermined payment key, wherein thepredetermined payment key includes one or more attributes of PaymentData, Company Payment Data or Merchant Data, either in a native form orin a derivative form, that is configured to uniquely identify thespecific company and the location; display an engagement channel betweenthe specific company and the customer; and provide data to the customerfrom the specific company through the engagement channel, wherein thedata includes one of data related to a transaction associated with thetransaction data and or data related to a future transaction.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING(S)

Exemplary and non-limiting embodiments of the present disclosure areillustrated and described herein with reference to various drawings, inwhich like reference numbers denote like method steps and/or systemcomponents, respectively, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a diagram of an electronic payment processing network;

FIG. 2 is a diagram of an Automated Clearing House (ACH) network;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a real time engagement channel enabled bythe systems and methods described herein;

FIG. 4 is an exemplary transaction and an exemplary screen shot usingthe channel of FIG. 3 with the transaction;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a company payment method for deriving a paymentkey;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a merchant data method;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a merchant data method that utilizesCredentials to facilitate Data Exchange;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of a payment data method;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of an enrichment method;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of a reward method;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a coupon method;

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of a sharing method;

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of a smart device for use in the varioussystems and methods described herein;

FIG. 14 is a block diagram of an exemplary implementation of a serverfor use in the various methods described herein;

FIG. 15A is a diagram of a conventional payment system compared to apayment system using the engagement channel and how the inventionoverlays these systems;

FIG. 15B is a flow diagram of an exemplary method using the overlaidsystem;

FIGS. 16A-16B are flowcharts of a payment method;

FIG. 17 is a flow diagram of a channel method; and

FIG. 18 is a flowchart of the product key method.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In various exemplary embodiments, an enhanced customer interactionchannel is described where the identity of the Customer may or may notbe known before the Transaction begins and without prior acceptance,opt-in or participation of the Customer with a Company or sellerdesiring to utilize the channel. The systems and methods describe theability to match Customer transactions to Companies or merchantsutilizing the system to continue and enhance their interaction withtheir existing Customers as well as prospective or unknown Customers.Various embodiments describe how this new “customer-seller interactionchannel” or engagement channel may be utilized and extended by Companiesto enhance their interactions with Customers beyond the transactionvalue used to create the original match or transaction entity.

Thus the creation of a new type of channel which could enhance the type,level and amount of communication and data exchange betweenCustomers/buyers and Companies/sellers would be desirable in thebroadest economic sense to enhance all transactions and sales effortsboth past, present and future Customer interactions, sales, support,education and the similar efforts. This new type of customer engagementchannel is novel and unique in particular because this channel can beused by Companies/sellers to reach Customers/buyers, whether they areexisting/prior customer or new/unknown Customers and without requiringprior presentment of personally identifiable data by the Customer/buyerto the system operating the new channel or to the Company/seller.Further, it would be more desirable that this new information, data,communication and value transfer or exchange system could be generatedautomatically using prior payment or transaction history or data to“match” with known or identifiable data sources and without requiringany effort by the Customer/buyer and not requiring pre-approved, opt-inor consent before interaction occurs. Therefore the creation of this newchannel could be enhanced if it were created by a “matching system” thatcould look at, watch, monitor or inspect Customer transactions withoutpersonally identifiable data being provided to Companies/sellers who aremembers or subscribers of this new system. This new customer-sellervalue channel would provide a new way to reach Customers via both broadbased anonymous, non-opt-in (e.g. anonymous) methods as well as beingutilizable for direct or one to one, highly targeted channels to wellknown, identified, preselected Customers and or to customers who“opt-in” to the new channel to receive optional or additional valuebased on their existing and future buying or selling activities andtransactions. Finally, the new customer engagement channel developed bythis invention can be used to enhance communication between Companiesand Customers for existing items, goods or services both for previouslypurchased items such as warranties, product manuals or help/productsupport in addition to delivering new information or offers regardingfuture or possible sales transactions.

Referring to FIG. 1, in an exemplary embodiment, a description of thehigh level and well-known identifiable five parties of an electronicpayment processing network 10 may be labeled as follows: a first partyin these systems is the holder of a payment form or branded networkpayment account holder (i.e., a customer, buyer or payor 11), the secondparty is the payment acceptor or merchant (i.e. a merchant, seller,company or payee 12), the third party is an acquiring bank 13 or thebank which accepts and facilitates the clearing of payments on behalf ofor for the benefit of the merchant (the payee 12), the fourth party isan issuing bank 14 (i.e. the bank that issued the card or payment formto the payor, who may or may not extend credit to them, who may providecustomer support, billing and collection of the actual payment flow fromthe payment account holder or “customer” or payor 11 to the otherparties) and finally the fifth party is an actual “brand” or paymentnetwork system operator 15—e.g. Visa (V), MasterCard (MC), Discover (D),American Express (Amex) and the like, which connects all of the partiestogether under a well-known brand identity with defined operating,pricing, processing and settlement rules. Note that the American Expresscard network operates a modified version of the “five party” network forcard payments (i.e. it is a three party model including payor, merchantand Amex) in that Amex traditionally has performed the roles of both theissuing bank 14 and the acquiring bank 13 as well as the networkoperator 15 who sets the payment issuing and acceptance rules (thenetwork rules of all card payment forms are herein included in full byreference). Additionally, ATM network or PIN debit card networkoperators function in a similar manner facilitating origination, routingand settlement of payment requests between customer, merchant, bank orATM operator and other payment networks or alternative paymentprocessors, originators or recipients and the like.

Referring to FIG. 2, in an exemplary embodiment, an Automated ClearingHouse (ACH) network 20 follows a related business and processing modelfor its electronic payment services using a four (4) party model: thepayor 11, the payee 12, an Originating bank 21 (or OriginatingDepository Financial Institution—ODFI, who is the processor and orsponsoring bank of the payee) and a Receiving bank 22 (or ReceivingDepository Financial Institution—RDFI) who debits the payor's bankaccount to initiate the payment transfer back to the ODFI who processesit on behalf of the payee. In the case of ACH payments, the National ACHAssociation (NACHA) provides the processing and settlement rules (hereinincluded in full by reference) in a similar manner to the Visa,MasterCard or American Express network model. Various network operators,with the Federal Reserve being the largest, provide connectivity toclear or exchange NAHCA files between ODFI and RDFI. The most commonpayment usage of the ACH method is for Online Bill Payments (OLBP) orElectronic Bill Presentment and Payment (EBPP), ecommerce and or personto person payment (PayPal and the like) and all of these payment formsmay be seen to function at a high level using a similar business method,pricing and sales as well as risk management models to the card paymentmethods. Additionally, the Federal Reserve and private third partynetworks facilitate the check payment settlement network, including theimage settlement rules set by ECCHO (herein included by reference infull), in a role similar to ACH networks and or card or electronicpayment network systems.

Thus, at an overall or high level, the payments marketplace can be seento be a collection of cooperating parties working together to providecustomers (payors and payees) with a comprehensive set of paymentprocessing services that operate under a consistent set of businessrules, pricing or fee structures and common standards or rules, such asrisk management or security requirements, electronic file formats,electronic messages or records and the like to facilitate paymenttransactions while minimizing risk of fraud and maximizing customer andmerchant acceptance of their payment form in the marketplace. Oneexample of a cooperating set of operating rules is the compliance rulesof the Payments Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards, hereinincluded in full by reference including the newest forms ormodifications or custom system rules. Another example is the IndustryStandards Organization (ISO) electronic messaging standards forfinancial transaction card originated messages—Interchange messagespecifications such as the ISO 8583 format and the like. Note thatbusiness models, rules, pricing, and often compliance, security and riskmanagement specifications may vary by payment form or provider oroperating party within a network system but often these elements may bedictated by the branded payment network operator as a requirement on allor some of the participating parties.

Beyond the five well known parties that are commonly identified in thecard payment networks, there are additional parties that help connect oroperate components of a payment or transaction processing network tofacilitate key aspects of the processing lifecycle. These additionalparties provide critical or value added services for or on behalf of oneof the existing five parties. Some examples of these additional partiesor vendors are: Point of Sale (POS) equipment providers who facilitatemagnetic stripe card “swipe” transactions including the “swipe box”terminal providers such as VeriFone, Hypercom, Ingenico and the like.Other examples include electronic network connection “switch” serviceswhich acquire payment “messages” and process and or route them toappropriate processing operators which link POS transaction “swipes” tothe acquiring and issuing banks—examples of these are vendors such asFirst Data, TSYS, Global Payments, and the like. Additionally, non-POSenvironments such as ATM or PIN debit networks, Internet websites,ecommerce transactions and the like may flow through ATM machines, PINdebit keypad devices, ecommerce shopping carts and or “paymentgateways”, aggregators or network providers such as NYCE, Star,CyberSource, PayPal, Square, Google Checkout, Authorize.NET and the likewho facilitate payment transactions by routing the transaction detailsto switches and or other vendors or processors in order to reach banksand or payment networks. Businesses or merchants may also purchase orutilize other business transaction processing services such as invoiceor lockbox services, loyalty or rewards points tracking and processing,or rebate or coupon redemption processing services, all of which mayflow through similar acquiring and processing networks or newalternative payment processing services and the like. Finally, new“mobile” transactions may be made by customers (payors) or received bymerchants (payees) using cell phones (or smart phones, or tablet devicesor PDAs such as the Apple iPad or other digital assistants and the like)which may use one of a variety of “near field communication” (NFC)methods, barcode scanning, human biometric methods as well as the moretraditional card “swipe” models to initiate a payment transaction. Thesetransactions allow the merchant (payee) to charge the customer (payor)for goods and or services and facilitate their purchase(s) by one of avariety of card or account numbers, tokens, one time use numbers, pseudoIDs, GUIDs, stored value identifiers, e-wallets, and the like which mayperform a similar if not identical function to the traditional plasticcard payment “swipe” transactions.

Finally, there are various sales, service and support parties, widelyknown as Independent Sales/Service Organizations or “ISOs”, whichfacilitate the recruitment of and selling to merchants to accept (or“acquire”) many of these payment forms, along with the delivery,training, management and operational effectiveness of a payment form ormethod and any required equipment within a targeted market. ISOs thatsell a specific payment form to payment receivers (payees) usuallyexplain the pricing, delivery and operation of these payment services totheir customers across the various retail stores, merchants or ingeneral any business desiring to have payment processing services. Thus,given the interconnectedness, complexity and possible combination ofparties operating to originate, clear and settle a payment transaction,it can be seen by those skilled in the art that the understanding of andat times assignment of risk or ultimate responsibility for a transactionacross these various entities may be confusing or at times even hiddenfrom the participants and may unfortunately be a variable or subjectivematter to some of the parties or unknown to any or each party before atransaction occurs. Additionally it is well known to those in the artthat these systems may provide various levels of data, information,details or knowledge about a specific transaction, set of transactionsor type of transactions to the merchant (company or seller) based on thetype and level of service purchased by or subscribed to by the merchantor company from the electronic payment transaction system. Thus theseexisting systems may provide various levels of costs, security,reliability, information and delivery or support and the like tocompanies who utilize them to facilitate the selling of goods andservices to their customers.

Prior attempts to utilize the data, results or values from transactionsbetween buyers and sellers to identify, track or enhance interactionswith Customers are well known to those with experience in these arts.The failure of these prior or existing well-known systems to provideautomated, autonomous and anonymous matching of merchants/companies tobuyers/customers has created the need for the systems and methodsdescribed herein. That is, in an exemplary embodiment, the systems andmethods provide an accurate technique to match transactions betweenbuyer and sellers without relying on the actual merchant or seller name.Additionally, the current invention avoids the failures of previoussystems which failed due to the various and wide ranging inconsistenciesin merchant payment and transaction data streams which prevent matchingon merchant names, standardizing merchant names or standardizing keydata elements such as Merchant ID and the like. The current embodimentovercomes the weaknesses in the transaction data stream caused by humanerror, data input error, inconsistent application of names or identitiesin merchant processing and many other errors of the like. Thus thecurrent invention provides confidence to match merchant names and or IDsacross key data elements.

The key novelties of the invention are as follows:

1. The invention creates an engagement channel that is agnostic to thesource of the Payment Data, payment type, payment system, and processesor Devices used to process payments making it truly universal byoverlaying all previous systems.

2. The invention sits in the middle of the various players as a hubversus trying to connect the various entities directly, while it alsoenables a “network effect” by leveraging the data, customers,connections and value of all of these players while creating newconnections.

3. The invention creates a channel that supports two types ofengagements. The first type of engagement allows Companies to publishcontent to their Customer or an anonymous Customer via connections usingvarious types of Payment Data without a Customer having to register withthe System and without the Company needing any PII. The second type ofengagement allows Companies to publish content in a variety of ways,including through a dedicated portal or social media site, such asFacebook and the like, if the Customer elects to register with theSystem.

4. The invention allows Customers to automatically receive all artifactsof a Transaction for both payments and the exchange of value by simplyengaging in a Transaction.

5. The invention utilizes a Payment Key established prior to attemptingto identify Companies from Payment Data versus using logic andalgorithms to make the match based solely on the Payment Data itself.Such logic typically utilizes an external data source, such as a list ofstandardized merchant names, for matching whereas the invention doescare what fields are used and what the merchant name is because it isusing a key derived from static data that could be anything. In theexample above, the invention could identify and distinguish Joe's Pizzafrom Pizza by Joe.

6. The invention utilizes more than one field of data for matchingversus relying on just the merchant name field. Based on currentconvention the invention would also use merchant city, but again, theinvention is designed to use all available static field data.

7. The invention is not only able to match a Company but also a Locationand Device(s) at Locations, including scenarios where Companies havesimilar names, identical names or units of a chain or franchiseoperating under identical business names at Locations.

8. The invention is able to merge Payment Data and Transaction Datawhich are available through disparate systems into one engagementchannel. As a result the invention allows for a holistic understandingof a Transaction including both the exchange of value and the exchangeof payment.

9. The invention has a specific process for identifying and handlingduplicates. Much like a domain name the first merchant to register isassigned the payment key made up of the static data fields. If anothermerchant wants to register and happens to have the same field values,the system will not allow the registration but will instead provide analternative value for the static fields, which it will hold so themerchant can have it changed with its acquirer. This avoids any errorsrelated to duplicates.

10. The invention identifies the payment key in advance using two uniquemethods. One is to provide a merchant with a payment card to run (bothwith and without a unique card number) and the other is to get the datafrom the merchant account record at their processor or acquirer. Theseare the only two methods that provide the merchant field and other fieldvalues in advance.

11. The invention supports harvesting Payment Data used for matchingfrom both client side software, such as a browser extension, or viaserver side software that runs the harvesting without the need of clientsoftware, which for example can be done by executing server sideapplication upon a page load containing Payment Data whereby the serverside code extracts the Payment Data and transmits it to the Systemwithout requiring and installation by the Customer. Also the location ofthe server side process may vary.

12. The invention supplements the data within the engagement channel toadd more value beyond the traditional payment data.

13. The invention is able to link any string of characters to identifyProducts within Transaction Data versus relying on standard productnumbers, such as GTINs.

14. Based on matching Products from transaction Data, the invention canautomatically distribute Product Data, such as user manuals, warranties,additional services, coupons, upgrades and other material and the like.

Before describing the systems and methods, it is desirable to define thefollowing terms for use in describing and defining the systems andmethods throughout this document. Whenever used in this document,whether in capitalized or uncapitalzed form, singular or plural form,the following words or terms should be generally interpreted to conformto the following ideas, concepts or intentions as defined as follows:

1. Account—Any unique virtual or real instance unique to and/orassociated with a Company, Customer, Third Party and/or Third PartySystem.2. Acquirer—Any individual or entity that can enable and/or cause toenable Company to perform Payment Processing.3. Aggregator—Any individual or entity that acts as an agent for anAcquirer typically utilizing its own systems to receive and routeauthorization and/or settlement requests.4. Associations—Any and all networks or groups of individuals orentities that interact for the purpose of authorizing and settlingPayments. Examples include but are not limited to Visa and MasterCard.5. Company—Any individual or entity, including vendors, that is able orcan become able to perform any step, method or aspect of PaymentProcessing and/or a Transaction.6. Company Data—Any and all data in a machine readable or human readableformat, including image files and pictures, associated with a Company,which could include but not be limited to:

a. Category—One or more categories (e.g., restaurant, grocery storeetc.) that could be used for grouping transactions, reporting and/or taxpurposes.

b. Contact Information—One or more addresses, which could includelatitude and longitude, mapping information, postal service codes and/orgeolocation information, phone numbers, fax numbers, email addresses,uniform resource locators (URLs) or any other contact or referenceinformation.

c. Coupon—One or more coupons (see definition below)

d. Invoice—One or more invoices.

e. Link—One or more URLs to other web sites or other web basedlocations, which may include FTP sites, blogs, portals, personaldevices, tablets, PDAs and the like.

f. Message—One or more messages consisting of any type of characters andof any length, which could be in plain text, Hyper Text Markup Language(HTML), contain graphics or be in any other format.

g. Menus—One or more menus and/or order forms.

h. Name—One or more legal or other names.

i. Offer—One or more advertisements, offers, promotions or other relatedmarketing materials, methods, or systems.

j. Payment Data—See definition below

k. Product Data—See definition below

l. Purchase Orders—One or more purchase orders.

m. Rating—One or more rating scales in any format.

n. Receipts—One or more receipts.

o. Reviews—One or more reviews.

p. Rewards Rules—One or more Reward Rules (see definition below)

q. Schedule—One or more schedules and/or calendars, which could identifybusiness hours.

r. Survey—One or more surveys of any type and in any format.

s. Transaction Data—See definition below

7. Company Payment—One or more Payments, which could include one or morePayment Numbers and/or one or more Payment Amounts, created by and/orknown to System and associated with or that can be used to identify aspecific Company, Location, Device and/or Account.8. Company Payment Analysis—The act of using Company Payment Data toidentify associated Company, Payment Key and/or Account.9. Company Payment Data—Any and all data in a machine readable and/orhuman readable format associated with Company Payment.10. Company Payment Submission—The act of Payment Processing beingperformed for Company Payment.11. Coupon—A monetary or non-monetary benefit, of any kind and in anyvalue which could include but is not limited to currency, points, and/orairline miles, which requires presentment and acceptance by Companyduring a Transaction, provided by or on behalf of Company and/or ThirdParty to Customer.12. Coupon ID—One or more characters and/or one or more groups of one ormore characters unique to and/or that can be used to identify one ormore Coupons, presented in any format such as barcodes, text, numbers,unique IDs and the like.13. Coupon Presentment—The act of presenting a Coupon to Company.14. Coupon Submission—The act of Coupon ID being received by System.15. Coupon Analysis—The act of comparing a Coupon ID received duringCoupon Submission with Coupon IDs that exist in System to identify ifthere is a match.16. Coupon Processing—The act of providing approval or decline forCoupon redemption and, based on approval or decline, adjusting thecoupon counts and/or other associated data.17. Content—Any and all data in a machine readable and/or human readableformat stored in and/or associated with System.18. Credential—One or more characters and/or one or groups of one ormore characters, which can include but is not limited to usernames,passwords, email addresses, fax numbers, phone numbers, twitteraddresses, instant messenger addresses or other PII and the like or anycombination thereof, unique to and/or that can be used to identify aCompany, Customer, Third Party and/or Third Party System.19. Credential Submission—The act of Credential, and optionally Content,being received by System.20. Credential Analysis—The act of comparing a Credential receivedduring Credential Submission to Credentials that existing in System toidentify if there is a match.21. Customer—Any individual or entity that engages or could engage in aTransaction with one or more Companies.22. Data Exchange—The act of adding, inputting, outputting, editing,deleting, viewing, moving, copying, publishing, synchronizing and/or anyother data manipulation of Content, as well as the use of opticalcharacter recognition (OCR) to extract machine readable data from humanreadable data, to and/or from System.23. Data Linking—The act of utilizing one or more characters and/or oneor more groups of one or more characters of Credential and/or Content toassociate Content with one or more Companies, Customers, Third Party's,Third Party Systems and/or Accounts and/or associate Content with otherContent.24. Device—Any hardware, firmware, software and/or other means used toperform Payment Processing, including but not limited to point-of-sale(POS), credit card terminals, payment gateways, voice response units(VRUs), PC and mobile applications, tablets and the like.25. Enrichment Data—Any and all data that is not Company Data, providedby System to enrich Company Data, which could include but not be limitedto GTIN database, demographic data or geographic data.26. Enrichment Key—One or more characters and/or one or more groups ofone or more characters unique to and/or that can be used to identifyspecific Enrichment Data and Company Data. For example, a zip codeassociated with a specific Transaction could be part of Company Data aswell as an Enrichment Data thereby allowing Company Data to be linked toEnrichment Data. In this case the Enrichment Data may be demographicsabout the zip code thereby linking the Transaction with saiddemographics.27. Enrichment Key Analysis—The act of identifying Enrichment Keys thatexist in both Company Data and Enrichment Data.28. Enrichment Key Processing—The act of associating Enrichment Datawith Company Data using Enrichment Keys.29. GTIN—A set of characters that identifies Product or services, whichcould include but not limited to Global Trade Item Number (GTIN), PriceLook Up (PLU) and Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) and the like.30. Interchange—A physical or virtual network, and any other hardware,software and/or process which operates, generates or causes to bederived the transaction data used to obtain authorizations and/orsettlement of related funds for Payments, including but not limited tothe system used by Visa and MasterCard members, the system used byAmerican Express, the system used by Discover Card, the system used byJCB, the system used by Diners Club, the system used by private labelcards, the systems used by Federal Reserve system for clearing checks,and/or the Automated Clearing House (ACH).31. Issuer—Any individual or entity that can enable or caused to enablea Customer to make a Payment.32. Key—Any data or indica that may be used to uniquely identify a matchbetween two sets of data or data elements.33. Location—Any physical place typically but not always denoted by anaddress.34. Merchant Account—An account and associated systems and processesestablished associated with and/or used by Company to perform PaymentProcessing which are typically established by Acquirer.35. Merchant Data—Any and all data directly or indirectly associatedwith a Merchant Account regardless of where said data is stored.36. Merchant Data Analysis—The act of using Merchant Data to identifyassociated Company, Payment Key and/or Account.37. Merchant Data Submission—The act of Merchant Data being received bySystem.38. Merchant City—A set of characters associated with Company and/orMerchant Account that are typically, but not always, used to denote thecity where the Company is located.39. Merchant Name—A set of characters associated with Company and/orMerchant Account that are typically, but not always, used to denote theCompany's name.40. Offers—Any and all forms of communication from a company to acustomer.41. Merchant Number—A set of characters associated with and/or that canbe used to identify a Merchant Account.42. Payment—Any form of payment related to a Transaction, which couldinclude but is not limited to credit cards, debit cards, checks, ACH,wires, P2P, cash, coupons, private label cards, stored value cards, andmobile wallet payments.43. Payment Amount—A sum, which could be expressed in currency or otherform, of a Payment.44. Payment Data—Any and all data and/or information associated with aPayment at any time during its lifecycle, including but not limited anyand all data related to Interchange.45. Payment Data Analysis—The act of using Payment Data to identifyassociated Company, Payment Key and/or Account.46. Payment Data Submission—The act of Payment Data being received bySystem.47. Payment Key—One or more attributes of Payment Data, Company PaymentData and/or Merchant Data, which could either be in the native form orin a derivative form, unique to and/or that can be used to identify aspecific Company, Location, Device and/or Account.48. Payment Key Analysis—The act of comparing a Payment Key identifiedduring Company Payment Analysis, Merchant Data Analysis, and/or PaymentData Analysis with Payment Keys that exist in System to identify ifthere is a match.49. Payment Key Processing—The act of forgoing Payment Key Linking whena match is found during Payment Key Analysis. This process could, but isnot required to include, a routine in which the System identifies a newPayment Key value that would be unique in the System, holds that newPayment Key in reservation for the Company to change with their Acquirerand then waits for the Company Payment Submission to occur again.50. Payment Key Linking—The act of associating Payment Key with aspecific Company and/or Account.51. Payment Number—Any number, which could be a credit card number orsimilar account number, and or a Transaction ID and the like, associatedwith a Payment.52. Payment Processing—The act of authorizing and/or settling a Paymentthrough Interchange regardless of the hardware, software, or processingsystem used.53. Personal Finance Manager (PFM)—Any of the many third party financialservices applications, websites, portals or systems that provideaggregated financial data across one of more vendors, companies, issuersor the like which may provide various services such as organization,categorization, charting or graphing, analyzing, summarizing, indexingand or various other data processing services to a customer in order toprovide enhancements to known financial records, transactions and thelike. The PFM typically provides enhanced services or value over theservices that a single company, vendor or issuer may provide to theircustomer via their native, default or built-in applications, tools,websites or services.54. Personally Identifiable Information (PII)—Any information, data, orknowledge that enables a specific person, Company or entity to uniquelyidentify, know, target, address, reach or allows to be known a specificperson, Company or entity. Examples include but are not limited to:Social Security Number (SSN), Tax ID, EIN, First Name, Last Name, FullName, phone number, address, zip code, customer ID, email address,website or URL address, electronic address, chip address or ID and thelike.55. Processor—Any individual or entity that can receive Paymentauthorization and/or settlement requests and route them to the properentity within payment system.56. Product—Any and all products, goods or services of any kindassociated with a Transaction.57. Product Data—Any and all data related to Products, including but notlimited to description, manufacturing information, user guides,warranties, and/or software.58. Product Data Linking—The act of linking and/or associating ProductData with a Product Key and/or Product.59. Product Key—One or more characters and/or one or more groups of oneor more characters used to uniquely identify a Product.60. Product Key Analysis—The act of comparing a Product Key receivedduring Product Key Submission with Product Keys that exist in System toidentify if there is a match.61. Product Key Linking—The act of associating Product Key with aspecific Product, Product Data, Company and/or Account62. Product Key Processing—The act of forgoing Product Key Linking whena match is found during Product Key Analysis. This process could, but isnot required to include, a routine in which the System identifies a newProduct Key value that would be unique in the System.63. Product Key Submission—The act of Product Key being received bySystem along with associated Product Data requested to be linked to saidProduct Key.64. Registration—The act of creating an Account and associating it witha Company, Customer, Third Party and/or Third Party System, may includeinputting or linking to PII and other Credential data or other indiciasuch as GTIN or data on items previously purchased.65. Rewards—A monetary or non-monetary benefit of any kind and in anyvalue, which could include but is not limited currency, points, and/orairline miles, that does not require presentment during a Transactionbut instead relies Reward Rules, provided by or on behalf of Companyand/or Third Party to Customer. May also be known as Loyalty Points orPrograms.66. Rewards Analysis—The act of identifying if any Reward Rules apply.67. Rewards Processing—The act of calculating and/or fulfilling Rewardsbased on Reward Rules.68. Rewards Rules—One or more rules, formulas or processes, based onContent and/or Payment Data, which used individually or togetherdetermine the value of Rewards or Loyalty Points.69. Sharing Rules—One or more rules or processes, based on Contentand/or Payment Data, which is used by System to determine which Contentcan be shared, as well as the associated perimeters for sharing,including but not limited to when the Content can be shared, to whom theContent can be shared and how the Content can be shared.70. Sharing Analysis—The act of identifying if any Sharing Rules apply.71. Sharing Processing—The act of sharing Content and/or Payment Databased on Sharing Rules.72. Statement—A machine readable and/or human readable list, in anyform, of Payment Data, Transaction Data or Sales Data and the likeprovided by or on behalf of Issuer, Third Party, a portal or a PFMapplication and the like which may generate Statements or repurposethose generated by issuers, vendors or other companies.73. System—Any hardware, firmware, software, applications, processes, orother mechanisms whether physical or non-physical related to and/orenabling the claims herein.74. Third Party—Any individual or entity that is not Company orCustomer.75. Third Party System—Any hardware, firmware, software, applications,processes, or other mechanisms whether physical or non-physical that isnot System.76. Transaction—A process that involves the exchange of value such asthe sale of a Product in exchange for a Payment.77. Transaction Data—Any and all data related to value exchange of aTransaction as well as any data not available in Payment Data, such assales tax, which could include line item details of Transaction such aswould be displayed on a receipt, including but not limited to GTIN,product or service description.78. Transaction Number—A set of characters associated with Paymentduring Interchange that could be used to track Payment, including butnot limited to Visa's Transaction Identifier or authorization numbersassigned for card transactions.79. Vendor—Any third party company who provides outsourced services tocompanies.80. Value—the tangible or intangible item, good or service that causes,incents or otherwise motives Customer to transact with Company byexchanging a Payment with Company in order to receive the item, good orservice or benefit from the transaction in any way.

Referring to FIG. 3, in an exemplary embodiment, a block diagramillustrates a real time engagement channel 30 enabled by the systems andmethods described herein. In the general course of commerce, or buyingand selling, customers 32 engage in transactions with companies 34 everyday where they exchange money (a payment in some monetary form) for someproduct, good or service (or something of value) provided to them by thecompany 34. The type of value and payment used to facilitate thesetransactions can vary but the process is universally understood andaccepted and it is understood by those in the art how these well-knowntransaction processing systems produce sets of payment data whichdescribe, define or identify the act value exchange transaction betweenthe buyer and seller. For example, two exemplary processes are describedin FIGS. 1 and 2 although any process is contemplated herein.

Typically, the level of transaction detail or knowledge encompassing atransaction is at an anonymous level, especially for companies operatingfrom brick and mortar store locations where the customers 32 walk in,purchase something, and walk out without the company 34 ever knowing whothey were. However, regardless of the type of company, there is oneconstant, which is needed in order to engage customers 32 in futuretransactions, which is that the company 34 must obtain some type ofpersonal information or PII, typically an address of some type, such asan email address, fax number, phone number and the like to reach out andcommunicate with the customer 32. In order to have such a personalcontact point, the customer 32 must take action to opt-in or volunteerto set it up or provide this data, and then they must actually followthrough and provide this data to the company 34. So, in order to allowthe company 34 to engage the customer 32, two things must happen: thecustomer 32 must establish a personal address or point of contact orother PII data, and the company 34 must obtain one or more of thecustomers 34 personal addresses. Typically this type of information andcommunication is provided under some type or form of customer loyalty orrewards system where the customer 32 is incented to provide suchinformation in the hope that they will accumulate some level of valuefor participating in the system. Such a system of communication hasworked well but has many limitations and requires active participationby the parties, the customer 32 and the company 34. Further, statisticsshow that the customers 32 are not eager to provide personal addressesor PII to the company 34 and, in fact, many states are passing laws thatrestrict companies from even asking for them. So what was a difficultprocess of establishing a relationship between the company 34 and thecustomer 32 is only getting harder.

There are other engagement options, such as television and radio, orother well-known marketing and sales methods, which do not require thetwo steps listed above, but in those cases the company 34 is notspecifically engaging the customer 32 but widely sending out a broadcastmessage or offer for anyone with a TV or radio, phone, mailbox or emailbox and the like to see or hear. So, while such forms of engagement doeliminate the two requirements above, the content is not able to beaddressed to a specific audience or targeted audience by a company,which makes sense because there is no personal address available to doso.

The systems and methods described herein not only eliminate the tworequirements described above but also allow the company 34 to providecontent to only their customers 32, for example, such as to those whohave previously purchased certain goods and services from them as wellas provide content to new, unknown or anonymous customers. The systemsand methods create a brand new channel, i.e. the real time engagementchannel 30, directly between the company 34 and the customer 32 withoutany of the limitations and or requirements currently in place today.Specifically, the systems and methods do this by applying processes andtechnology to the existing and well establish system of electronicpayment processing. Unlike cash or other similar instruments, electronicpayments, such as credit or debit card payments and the like, have dataartifacts and this data typically flows through various networks andsystems, i.e. payment data. The payment data associated with electronicpayments has both static and dynamic data elements. For instance, adynamic data element may be the Payment Amount, because that changes foreach transaction, whereas Merchant Name and Merchant City may be staticdata that is associated with every Payment. The systems and methods areable to use the static data to identify the company 34, such that whenthe customer 32 views the Payment Data on a Statement, the company 34can then distribute information to and or engage with the customer 32.So, the systems and methods leverage the transaction data to create thenew channel 30 on top of the existing payment process.

As shown in FIG. 3, one of the key aspects of the systems and methods isthat it does not require any changes in the systems used to processpayments or the processing itself. It lays on top of the existinginfrastructure making it universally available to all Companies 34 andCustomers 32. At a high level, once the Customer 32 makes a Payment tothe Company 34, that Customer 32 can view basically any type ofinformation offered or published from the Company 34 and Third Partiessuch as manufacturers and the like when viewing their Statement.

Even if the payment system included more data in the Payment Data, thedata is still static and at one point in time. For instance, if PaymentData included the street address of the Company 34, which is actually apossibility, that is still static information versus having a channelthat allows the Company to publish content in real time and on a dynamicand changing basis. Again, the systems and methods establish the channel30 and do not seek to simply add more information to the current PaymentData. That is, the channel 30 uses whatever Payment Data is included inthe current payment process without changes thereto.

While the systems and methods utilize the current payment process, thereare two key differences. First, the channel 30 can be used to displayany dynamic content related to Payment Data whereas the payment processcan only display static information. Second, the channel 30 can be usedto link the Company 32 and the Customer 34 such that after a singlepurchase the Company 32 can continue to engage the Customer 34 withoutPayment Data, such as through a portal or PFM, whereas the paymentprocess does not link Companies 34 and Customers 32 other than toexchange payment for value.

As described above, the systems and methods seek to establish the newchannel 30 between the Company 34 and the Customer 32 that does notrequire the Customer 32 to establish a personal address or the Company34 to obtain said personal address. Further, the systems and methodsseek allow the channel 30 to be used by the Company 34 to delivercontent only to their Customers 32 versus a broadcast that could bereceived by anyone. Once the channel 30 is established, there are avariety of forms of engagement that can take place not only between theCompany 34 and its Customers, 34 but can also include Third Parties.

Referring to FIG. 4, in an exemplary embodiment, an exemplarytransaction 40 and an exemplary screen shot 42 of using the channel 30with the transaction 40 are illustrated. The transaction 40 includesdata the customer 32 may see when viewing a statement, such as online orthe like. Note, the transaction 40 is shown for illustration purposesand those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize the transaction 40could take various different forms with different static and dynamicdata included therein.

In various exemplary embodiments, the systems and methods provided layerthe channel 30 on the transaction 40. This can take various forms aswill be described herein such as software included on the customer's 32computer or device viewing the transaction 40 that keys in on the dataassociated therewith to bring up details such as the exemplary screenshot 42. The exemplary screen shot 42 shows an exemplary client-sidegraphical user interface (GUI) based on the transaction 40. Generally,the channel 30 is based on connecting the customer 32 and the company 34through the Payment Data included in the transaction 40 with theexemplary screen shot 42 being one exemplary interaction over thechannel 30.

For example, the customer 32 can view the transaction 40 in whateverformat it is available in such as, without limitation, a secure website(e.g., visa.com, bankofamerica.com, wellsfargo.com, etc.), a financialwebsite or PFM (e.g., mint.com), accounting software (e.g., Quicken,Quickbooks, etc.), and the like. The customer 32 can have softwareinstalled that parses the transaction 40 and enables the customer 32 tobring up the screen shot 42 which can be located in another serverhosting the channel 30. Through the channel 30, the company 34 caninteract with the customer 32 based on the transaction 40. If thechannel 30 is used to link the Company 34 and the Customer 32, the samedynamic information shown above could be displayed basically anywhere.

Company Matching

When Payment Processing is performed, the resulting Payment Data ortransaction data has both static and dynamic data elements that can varyby Location and Device. Dynamic data elements could be the PaymentAmount, while the static elements could be Merchant Name and MerchantCity. In various exemplary embodiments, the systems and methods includea system to operate the channel 30 using the payment data. In order toidentify a Company, Location and or Device from Payment Data, the staticdata elements of Payment Data must be associated to a specific Company,Location and Device. As an example, if the only static elements of thePayment Data are Merchant Name and Merchant City, then the value ofMerchant Name and Merchant City together form a unique identifier(herein referred to as a Payment key). When the Payment Key isassociated in System with a specific Company, Location, and Device theSystem can identify that same Company, Location and Device withinPayment Data provided by a variety of sources in the future. Once thatcapability is established, Company and Third Parties can publish Contentor Offers to Customers by either attaching the Content, which isestablished in Data Exchange and Data Processing (see below), to thePayment Data or displaying it elsewhere, such as in System directly orin Third Party Systems.

For example, conventionally, systems use the merchant name solely toidentify the merchant from the transaction 40. However, the MerchantName used for Payment Processing does not need to match the actualbusiness name. Unlike systems such as used for domain names, becauseMerchant Name is not used as the identifier for Payment Processing(i.e., Merchant Number and Payment Number are typically used to fulfillpayments and Merchant Name is typically used just to provide theCustomer information regarding the Transaction) there is no requirementfor Merchant Names that flow through Payment Processing to be unique,and as such, there may be duplicate Merchant Names. Using Merchant Namesto match Companies with Payment Data and transaction data is limited inits capacity (e.g., if Joe's Pizza's Merchant Name used for Transactionsis Pizza by Joe no match is possible). Using Merchant Names to matchCompanies with Transactions is prone to errors and matching the wrongmerchant to the wrong transaction (e.g., if there are two Joe's Pizzasthe matching may match the wrong transaction with the wrong Joe's Pizza)given the lack of clarity between merchant name and which location anddevice generated the transaction. If the message format for PaymentProcessing ever changes whereby a Merchant Name is not used for somereason (e.g., Merchant Name is replaced with an ID number) usingMerchant Names to match Companies with Payment Data would not work atall.

The systems and methods identify the value of all useable (i.e., theminimum data fields that are universally or mostly presented onStatements realizing more fields of data are available and may be usedin the future) static fields, which can include the Merchant Name field,that is passed as part of Payment Processing in advance of Transactionsso it is not reliant on the Merchant Name matching or having a similarvalue as the Companies business names to match Companies toTransactions. In fact, the systems and methods do not care which fieldsare used and what the Merchant Name is because it is using a key derivedfrom static data that could be anything. In the example above, thesystems and methods could identify Joe's Pizza from Pizza by Joe becauseit is not reliant on the Merchant Name being similar or the same as theCompany's business name, which in this case is Joe's Pizza. The systemsand methods utilize more than one field of data for matching versusrelying on just the Merchant Name field. In some cases, Merchant namecould be the only static data that can be used for matching but that isnot typically the case. And even if it was, the systems and methods canidentify a Company with a Merchant Name value, even if it is not evenclose to the Company's business name because the systems and methodsidentify the value of Merchant Name, whatever it is, prior to performinga matching. In an exemplary embodiment, the systems and methods wouldalso use Merchant City, but again, the systems and methods are designedto use all available static field data, which includes both Merchant IDand Payment Number even though those are not traditionally displayed onStatements for privacy and security reasons. The systems and methodshave a specific process for identifying and handling duplicate PaymentKeys. Again, because typically Merchant ID and Payment Number (both ofwhich are required to be unique within a given payment system) are usedfor identifying the Customer and Company related to a Payment, there isno requirement that remaining static fields, which are the fieldsprimarily used to populated Statements, need to be unique. In order forthe systems and methods to match in such an unstructured environment,duplicate detection and handling is required. Much like a domain name,Payment Keys are associated with Companies on a first come, first servedbasis meaning once a Payment Key is assigned to one Company it cannot beassigned to another except if certain situations, such as the originalcompany is no longer in business, decided not to use it etc., or if theformat of the Payment Key changed (e.g., new static field becomeavailable thereby making the Payment Keys between the two companiesunique). If another Company wants to register and happens to have thesame field values (i.e., the same Payment Key value), the System willnot allow the registration or assignment of the Payment Key but willinstead provide an alternative value for the static fields, which itwill hold so the Company can have it changed with its Acquirer. Thisavoids any errors related to duplicates.

The systems and methods identify the payment key in advance using twounique methods. One is to provide a merchant with a payment, typically adebit/credit card, that has either a unique Payment Number and orPayment Amount such that the System can identify the Company thatprocesses the payment. As an example, the System could provide a Companywith a credit card 1234 1234 1234 1234 and instruct the Company to run acharge of $0.17. In this example, the charge amount is unique to theCompany such that when System received the Statement for the credit cardit can identify the Company based on the $0.17 charge. This procedurecan be done for each Device and each Location using the same principle.Further a unique credit card number could be assigned versus a uniquecharge amount. The other method is to get the data from the MerchantAccount record on file at the merchant's Acquirer, processor or thelike. These are the only two methods that provide the Merchant Namefield and other field values in advance which allow the system togenerate the unique Payment Key.

While the systems and methods utilize known values that do not need tomatch a business name, the Payment Key can appear in different placeswithin the Payment Data and Statements on an Issuer by Issuer basis.Therefore, in addition to its unique approach and systems for matchingthe Companies, the systems and methods also employ logic to find thematching value within a set of data. Typically it can be done with awild card search but can employ other methods. In addition, while thesystems and methods can rely on multiple data fields, not just theMerchant Name field, some of the static fields can be truncated by theissuer. For example, if one of the static fields used in the Payment Keyis Merchant City, and the city value is Anywhere, it is possible thatone Issuer may display Anywhere on a Statement whereas another Issuermay display “Anywhe”. Therefore, the systems and methods could employlogic to identify the probability of a match based on the number offields matched and the number of characters within the field matched orsimilar systems and methods which would produce unique results.

To perform the aforementioned matching of the transaction 40 to thecustomer 32 and the company 32, a Payment Key (the static data fieldvalues derived using the two methods listed above) must be known by thesystem and Payment Data must be received by the system to make a match.

Company Matching: Company Payment Method

Referring to FIG. 5, in an exemplary embodiment, a flowchart illustratesa Company Payment method 100 for deriving a Payment Key. The payment keyis used by the system to link the transaction 40 to the Customer32/Company 34 in the channel 30. The method 100 utilizes a Payment withcharacteristics associated with a specific Company and Location (hereinreferred to as Company Payment) to be used to not only identify theCompany, Location and Device related to Company Payment but also toidentify the Payment Key needed to identify Company, Location and Devicewithin Payment Data provided by various sources in the future. Once theSystem has identified the Company, Locations and Devices, it can extractthe Payment Key from the Payment Data and associate those unique PaymentKeys with the Company, Locations and Devices. There is a possibilitythat two Companies could have the same Payment Key. In that case, Systemwill not link the duplicate Payment Key if one exists in the System butwill instead recommend a new Payment Key that the Company can set upwith its Acquirer.

With respect to FIG. 5, assume the following:

Company: Company ABC Location: Location #1 Merchant Name: ABC 1 MerchantCity San Diego Company Payment Amount: $0.12

Company Payment Submission (step 101), the act of Payment Processingbeing performed for Company Payment, occurs. Based on the assumptionsabove, a Payment of $0.12 is processed by Company ABC using a Device atLocation #1. Next, Company Payment Analysis (step 102), the act of usingCompany Payment Data to identify associated Company, Payment Key and/orAccount, occurs. Based on the assumptions above, when the System sees aPayment Amount of $0.12 in Company Payment Data (i.e., the dataassociated with the Company Payment), it knows the Company Payment isassociated with Company ABC/Location #1 and as well the System could nowuniquely knows the Merchant ID for that location and or Device ID usedto generate the transaction. Additional the System identifies thePayment Key from the Company Payment Data, which, in this example,assuming the static data elements used for the Payment Key are MerchantName and Merchant City, would be “ABC 1 San Diego”. Typically, thePayment Key would be stored as two blocks of data that related to thestatic fields used, but that is not always the case. Further, thePayment Key could be changed to one or more derivative forms, usingencryption or other methods. Next, the Payment Key Analysis (step 103),the act of comparing a Payment Key identified during Company PaymentAnalysis, Merchant Data Analysis, and/or Payment Data Analysis withPayment Keys that exist in System to identify if there is a match,occurs. Based on the assumptions above, the System would be looking fora match of “ABC 1 San Diego”. If the Payment Key identified for CompanyABC/Location #1 (ABC 1 San Diego based on the assumptions above) doesnot exist within System, then Payment Key Linking (step 104), the act ofassociating Payment Key with a specific Company and/or Account, occurs.Based on the assumptions above, the Payment Key of “ABC 1 San Diego”would be associated with Company ABC/Location #1 such that when theSystem then receives Payment Data from any source in the future and itsees “ABC 1 San Diego” it can associate, link or establish a channelknowing Payment with Company ABC/Location #1, thereby allowing theCompany, as well as Third Parties, the ability to send and receive datafrom the Customer without ever having any PII of the Customer. Thesystem establishes this engagement channel by attaching said data to thePayment that was matched to Company ABC/Location #1 or displaying thedata elsewhere, such as in the System itself. If the Payment Keyidentified for Company ABC/Location #1 (ABC 1 San Diego based on theassumptions above) already exists within System, Payment Key Processing(step 105), the act of forgoing Payment Key Linking when a match isfound during Payment Key Analysis, which could include a routing inwhich the System identifies a new Payment Key value that would be uniquein the System, hold that new Payment Key in reservation for the Companyto change with their Acquirer and then wait for the Company PaymentSubmission to occur again, occurs.

Various exemplary embodiments are contemplated of the method 100including, without limitation:

-   -   1. Company performs Payment Processing of the Company Payment    -   2. Customer performs Payment Processing of the Company Payment    -   3. Third Party performs Payment Processing of the Company        Payment    -   4. System performs Payment Processing of the Company Payment    -   5. Third Party System performs Payment Processing of the Company        Payment

In an exemplary embodiment, the method 100 can be performed using apayment method, i.e. credit card, provided to the company or merchant bythe system solely for creating a transaction to derive the payment keytherefrom.

Company Matching: Merchant Data Method

Referring to FIG. 6, in an exemplary embodiment, a flowchart illustratesa Merchant Data method 120 for deriving a Payment Key. The method 120does not require Payment Processing of a Company Payment, but insteadutilizes the data associated with a Merchant Account (herein referred toas Merchant Data) to identify the Payment Key for a specific Company,Location and Device. The Payment Key can be identified from a singlerecord or group of Merchant Data records. Since the Payment Key shouldbe linked with a specific Company, Location and Device this methodemploys a different means for identifying the Company. That is becausethe Payment Keys could be extracted from one or more Merchant Datarecords without the System knowing which Companies to LINK? them to.Unlike the Company Payment Method which utilized a Company Payment withspecific attributes associated with a specific Company that was used bySystem to identify said Company, the Merchant Data Method can employ avariety of techniques to identify the Company. Some techniques mayinclude assigning the Company a unique number that is provided to theCompany's Acquirer to send along with the Merchant Data records, or touse the Merchant ID that is part of Merchant Data since that is unique,or use the email or phone numbers in the Merchant Data because those arealso unique. There is a possibility that two Companies could have thesame Payment Key. In that case, System will not link the duplicatePayment Key if one exists in the System but will instead recommend a newPayment Key that the Company can set up with its Acquirer.

With respect to FIG. 6, assume the following:

Method For Identifying Company: Use Merchant ID that is part of MerchantData

Company: Company ABC Location: Location #1 Merchant Name: ABC 1 MerchantCity San Diego Merchant ID: 1234

The Merchant Data Submission (step 121), the act of Merchant Data beingreceived by System, occurs. Next, Merchant Data Analysis (step 122), theact of using Merchant Data to identify associated Company, Payment Keyand/or Account, occurs. Based on the assumptions above, the Merchant IDis used to identify the Merchant Data is associated with CompanyABC/Location #1 and as well the system could now uniquely know theDevice IDs for Devices used at that Location. Additional the Systemidentifies the Payment Key from the Merchant Data, which, in thisexample, assuming the static data elements used for the Payment Key areMerchant Name and Merchant City, would be “ABC 1 San Diego”. Typically,the Payment Key would be stored as two blocks of data that related tothe static fields used, but that is not always the case. Further, thePayment Key could be changed to one or more derivative forms, usingencryption or other methods. Next, Payment Key Analysis (step 123), theact of comparing a Payment Key identified during Company PaymentAnalysis, Merchant Data Analysis, and/or Payment Data Analysis withPayment Keys that exist in System to identify if there is a match,occurs. Based on the assumptions above, the System would be looking fora match of “ABC 1 San Diego”. If the Payment Key identified for CompanyABC/Location #1 (ABC 1 San Diego based on the assumptions above) doesnot exist within System, then Payment Key Linking (step 124), the act ofassociating Payment Key with a specific Company and/or Account, occurs.Based on the assumptions above, the Payment Key of “ABC 1 San Diego”would be associated with Company ABC/Location #1 such that when theSystem then receives Payment Data from any source in the future and itsees “ABC 1 San Diego” it can associate that Payment with CompanyABC/Location #1, thereby allowing the Company, as well as Third Parties,the ability to send and receive data from the Customer without everhaving any PII of the Customer. The system establishes this engagementchannel by attaching said data to the Payment that was matched toCompany ABC/Location #1 or displaying the data elsewhere, such as in theSystem itself. If the Payment Key identified for Company ABC/Location #1(ABC 1 San Diego based on the assumptions above) already exists withinSystem, Payment Key Processing (step 125), the act of forgoing PaymentKey Linking when a match is found during Payment Key Analysis, whichcould include a routing in which the System identifies a new Payment Keyvalue that would be unique in the System, hold that new Payment Key inreservation for the Company to change with their Acquirer, occurs.

Various exemplary embodiments are contemplated of the method 120including, without limitation:

-   -   1. Company submits Merchant Data    -   2. Customer submits Merchant Data    -   3. Third Party submits Merchant Data    -   4. System submits Merchant Data    -   5. Third Party System submits Merchant Data

Product Matching

When a Transaction is performed there are typically related artifacts,such as a receipt, bill of sale, or an invoice and the like. LikePayment Data on Statements where the Merchant Name may not actually bethe Company's business name, the information related to Productspresented on Transaction artifacts may not accurately reflect therelated Products. For instance, if a Customer buys a Samsung TV Model123 from a Company and the receipt only lists TV as the description, theCustomer is unable to know, from looking at the receipt, that the TVpurchased was a Samsung let alone the Model number. In addition topossible confusion, not being able to clearly identify Product inhibitsthe Customer from identifying and gathering Product Data, such as usermanuals and warranties. Because there are no standards related to what aTransaction artifact must show, use of a known value related to aspecific product (herein referred to a Product Key) can allow Productsto be identified on Transaction artifacts. Using the same example asabove, if the value “TV” was linked to Samsung TV Model 123, for aCompany, then by simply knowing TV, the specific Product can beidentified and Product data can be associated with said Product. Oncethat capability is established, Company and Third Parties can publishContent or Offers to Customers by either attaching the Content, which isestablished in Data Exchange and Data Processing (see below), to thePayment Data or displaying it elsewhere, such as in System directly orin Third Party Systems.

While GTIN's exist there is no required product numbering systems forall Products that would allow a customer to identify a Product. Forinstance, custom products (i.e., those products made to order) do nothave a GTIN. There is no requirement for Companies to use GTINs, even ifthey exist, on receipts of other Transaction artifacts. Some POS andtransaction systems cannot support enough characters for GTINs, whichhave been recently expanded. Some POS and other transaction systems donot have enough memory to store all of the GTINs, even if they can printthem, for all Products sold by a Company. Some Companies do not useproduct numbers and instead just provide descriptions. Some Companieschoose to create internal SKU to GTIN links that hide the GTIN from thebuyer or otherwise obscure the original manufacture's identifier or GTINfor an item. In addition, there is no universal repository for productdocumentation such as user manuals or warranties nor is there auniversal or consistent method to link product GTIN to manuals ordocumentations outside of the systems and methods of the originalmanufacturer. Using GTINs for matching is limited in its capacitybecause not every product has a GTIN and because of the POS limitationscited above. For example, if a computer had a GTIN of 987654321 but thetransaction data showed 1234, no match is possible. Because of thematching issues, distribution of product related materials is limitedand prone to error.

Similar to company matching the concept employed here is that thesystems and methods know the value of the product number prior to seeingthe transaction data thereby avoiding having to match using GTINs.Instead, the present invention uses any unique value established by theCompany or System, which can be unique to a specific Company or uniqueacross multiple Companies, to identify a Product from Transaction Data.Unlike Payment Data, Transaction Data can come from a variety of sourcesand is not typically included as part of Payment Data (i.e., the paymentsystems are used for transferring payment and not information aboutvalue exchange). As such, the systems and methods allow for Transactiondata to be part of or separate from Payment Data. Using the exampleabove, the systems and methods could identify the product with GTIN987654321 by seeing 1234 because it is not relying on matching against aknown database but rather knowing the matching value in advance. Thesystems and methods allow any offer, information or document to beassociated with the unique string value that allows a product match.Therefore, the systems and methods allow a customer to get all dataassociated with a product by simply making a purchase regardless of thenumber used for identification or system used for processing.

The ultimate outcome would allow a Company and/or Third Party, such as amanufacturer, to provide Product Data, which is established in DataExchange and Data Processing (see below), to Customers without requiringany change in systems or the way the Company operates by allowing theCompany to associate a Product Key with a Product, and link data orinformation such as user manuals or warranties, such that whenTransaction Data is received by the System it can identify Productswithout having to rely on GTINs and then distribute the data andinformation, such as product manuals and warranties, to the Customer.The Product Key does not need to be a number but could, in fact, be theproduct description. As per the example above, TV could be used toidentify the Samsung TV Model 1234.

Note, the systems and methods can support receiving transaction data inany form including email, fax etc and the like. The systems and methodscan use both machine readable and human readable data in that it canemploy OCR technology to extract the data it needs. The system must knowthe Product Key and the system must know the associated productmaterials related to the unique number to link them.

Product Matching: Product Key Method

Referring to FIG. 16, in an exemplary embodiment, a flowchartillustrates a Product Key 900 for deriving a Product Key. This methodutilizes a Product Key to identify Products associated with Transactionsthereby enabling any form of information or data to be linked to aspecific Product.

Product Key Submission (step 901), the act of Product Key being receivedby System along with associated Product Data to be linked to saidProduct Key, occurs. Next, Product Key Analysis (step 902), the act ofcomparing a Product Key received during Product Key Submission withProduct Keys that exist in System to identify if there is a match,occurs. If the Product Key received during the Product Key Submissiondoes not exist within the System, Product Key Linking (step 903), theact of associating Product Key with a specific Product, Product Data,Company and/or Account, occurs. If the Product Key received during theProduct Key Submission already exists in the System, Product KeyProcessing (step 904), the act of forgoing Product Key Linking when amatch is found during Product Key Analysis, but a new Product Key valuethat would be unique in the System is suggested, occurs.

Various exemplary embodiments are contemplated of the method 900including, without limitation:

-   -   1. Company submits Product Key    -   2. Customer submits Product Key    -   3. Third Party submits Product Key    -   4. System submits Product Key    -   5. Third Party System submits Product Key

Data Exchange

Once Companies and Locations can be identified within Payment Data, awide variety of information can be shared between Company, ThirdParties, and Customers without having to collect any PII, such as emailaddress, from the Customers, once the channel 30 is enabled. Suchinformation can be attached to the related Payment, Transaction or itmay be shared in other ways.

The System leverages the existing payment process to create the newengagement channel 30 whereby the Companies 34 can publish and exchangedata with the Customers 32 without ever having to collect any personalinformation or change the way they do business. If the Customer 32elects to Register (or perform Registration), there may be furtherbenefits because all Companies 34 where the Customer 32 made Paymentswill be linked to the Customer 32 regardless of whether the Customer 32ever makes another payment to those Companies 34. So, the Systemprovides an anonymous communication channel tied to Payments, as well asthe ability for Customers 32 to establish permanent links with Companies34.

Data Exchange: Credential Method

Referring to FIG. 7, in an exemplary embodiment, a flowchart illustratesa merchant data method 140 that utilizes Credentials to facilitate DataExchange. The method 140 can apply to a wide variety of credentials,connections, and types.

Credential Submission occurs (step 141), the act of Credential, andoptionally Content, being received by System, occurs. Content may bereceived with Credential in the case where the method for Data Exchangeis email in which the email address can be the Credential and the emailwould also include Content. Next, Credential Analysis (step 142), theact of comparing a Credential received during Credential Submission toCredentials that exist in System to identify if there is a match,occurs. If the Credential received during Credential Submission existswithin System, Data Exchange (step 143), the act of adding, inputting,outputting, editing, deleting, viewing, moving, copying, publishing,synchronizing and/or any other data manipulation of Content occurs, aswell as the use of optical character recognition (OCR) to extractmachine readable data from human readable data, to and/or from System,occurs. Additionally, Data Linking (step 144), the act of utilizing oneor more characters and/or one or more groups of one or more charactersof Credential and/or Content to associate Content with one or moreAccounts and/or associate Content with other Content, occurs. If theCredential received during Credential Submission does not exist withinSystem, the operation ends (step 145) typically with an error to theentity submitting the Credentials.

Various exemplary embodiments are contemplated of the method 140including, without limitation:

-   -   1. Company performs Data Exchange using System user interface    -   2. Company performs Data Exchange by using email, simple message        service (SMS), instant messenger, fax, twitter or another type        of messaging that is received by System    -   3. Company performs Data Exchange using Device interfaced with        System    -   4. Company performs Data Exchange using Third Party System        interfaced with System    -   5. Company performs Data Exchange using System file mover        systems, including file transfer protocol (FTP)    -   6. Company performs Data Exchange using System application        programming interface (API)    -   7. Customer performs Data Exchange using System user interface    -   8. Customer performs Data Exchange by using email, SMS, instant        messenger, fax, twitter or another type of messaging that is        received by System    -   9. Customer performs Data Exchange using Device interfaced with        System    -   10. Customer performs Data Exchange using Third Party System        interfaced with System    -   11. Customer performs Data Exchange using System file mover        systems, including FTP    -   12. Customer performs Data Exchange using System application        programming interface (API)    -   13. Third Party performs Data Exchange using System user        interface    -   14. Third Party performs Data Exchange by using email, SMS,        instant messenger, fax, twitter or another type of messaging        that is received by System    -   15. Third Party performs Data Exchange using Device interfaced        with System    -   16. Third Party performs Data Exchange using Third Party System        interfaced with System    -   17. Third Party performs Data Exchange using System file mover        systems, including FTP    -   18. Third Party performs Data Exchange using System application        programming interface (API)    -   19. Third Party System performs Data Exchange using System user        interface    -   20. Third Party System performs Data Exchange by using email,        SMS, instant messenger, fax, twitter or another type of        messaging that is received by System    -   21. Third Party System performs Data Exchange using Device        interfaced with System    -   22. Third Party System performs Data Exchange using Third Party        System interfaced with System    -   23. Third Party System performs Data Exchange using System file        mover systems, including FTP    -   24. Third Party System performs Data Exchange using System        application programming interface (API)

Data Exchange Payment Data Method

Referring to FIG. 8, in an exemplary embodiment, a flowchart illustratesa payment data method 160. While Credentials may or may not be used toallow Payment Data Submission, the key difference with this method isthat it uses the Payment Key to identify Company, Location and Devicefor Data Exchange versus relying on Credentials. For example, an Issuermay have Credentials to interface with the System but it doesn't haveCredentials for Companies so, in order to link Payments with Companies,the Issuer would supply Payment Data to System, which would in turnidentify the Companies, Locations, and Devices and then perform DataExchange.

Payment Data Submission (step 161), the act of Payment Data beingreceived by System, occurs. Next, Payment Data Analysis (step 162), theact of using Payment Data to identify associated Company, Payment Keyand/or Account, occurs. Next, Payment Key Analysis (step 163), the actof comparing a Product Key received during Product Key Submission withProduct Keys that exist in System to identify if there is a match,occurs. If the Payment Key received during Payment Data Submissionexists within System, Data Exchange (step 164), the act of adding,inputting, outputting, editing, deleting, viewing, moving, copying,publishing, synchronizing and/or any other data manipulation of Content,as well as the use of optical character recognition (OCR) to extractmachine readable data from human readable data, to and/or from System,occurs. Additionally, Data Linking (step 145), the act of utilizing oneor more characters and/or one or more groups of one or more charactersof Credential and/or Content to associate Content with one or moreAccounts and/or associate Content with other Content, occurs. If thePayment Key received during Payment Data Submission does not existwithin System, the operation ends (step 166) typically with an error tothe entity submitting the Credentials.

Various exemplary embodiments are contemplated of the method 160including, without limitation:

-   1. Company submits Payment Data gathered from web pages-   2. Company submits Payment Data gathered from software application,    including mobile and tablet applications-   3. Company submits Payment Data gathered from digital Statements-   4. Company submits Payment Data gathered from hardcopy Statements-   5. Customer submits Payment Data gathered from web pages-   6. Customer submits Payment Data gathered from software application,    including mobile and tablet applications-   7. Customer submits Payment Data gathered from digital Statements-   8. Customer submits Payment Data gathered from hardcopy Statements-   9. Third Party submits Payment Data gathered from web pages-   10. Third Party submits Payment Data gathered from software    application, including mobile and tablet applications-   11. Third Party submits Payment Data gathered from digital    Statements-   12. Third Party submits Payment Data gathered from hardcopy    Statements-   13. Third Party System submits Payment Data gathered from web pages-   14. Third Party System submits Payment Data gathered from software    application, including mobile and tablet applications-   15. Third Party System submits Payment Data gathered from digital    Statements-   16. Third Party System submits Payment Data gathered from hardcopy    Statements

Data Processing

Once the System has performed Data Exchange, the System can performcertain actions on the data to create new data or other value. Forinstance, the data stored in or associated with the System (hereinreferred to as Content) can be used to calculate rewards for one or morecustomers and validate coupons. Further, the System can share Contentwith Third Parties and Third Party Systems to save Customers time by,for example, automatically registering Products with manufacturers. Insummary, where Data Exchange focused on the input and output of data,Data Processing is related to all of the actions that can be taken onthe data.

Data Processing: Enrichment Method

Referring to FIG. 9, in an exemplary embodiment, a flowchart illustratesan enrichment method 180. Because the Content is stored and/oraccessible to the System, said Content can be enhanced when paired withadditional data provided by or on behalf of System (herein referred toas Enrichment Data). Enrichment Data essentially enhances and expandsexisting Company data providing more value or by creating new data. Forexample, if a zip code is part of Company Data, Enrichment Data could bedemographic information about that zip code region.

Enrichment Key Analysis (step 181), the act of identifying EnrichmentKeys that exist in both Company Data and Enrichment Data, occurs. Next,Enrichment Key Processing (step 182), the act of associating EnrichmentData with Company Data using Enrichment Keys, Occurs.

Various exemplary embodiments are contemplated of the method 180including, without limitation:

-   1. System links Enrichment Data with Categories in Company Data-   2. System links Enrichment Data with Contact Information in Company    Data-   3. System links Enrichment Data with Coupons in Company Data-   4. System links Enrichment Data with Invoices in Company Data-   5. System links Enrichment Data with Links in Company Data-   6. System links Enrichment Data with Messages in Company Data-   7. System links Enrichment Data with Menus in Company Data-   8. System links Enrichment Data with Names in Company Data-   9. System links Enrichment Data with Offers in Company Data-   10. System links Enrichment Data with Product Data in Company Data-   11. System links Enrichment Data with Purchase Orders in Company    Data-   12. System links Enrichment Data with Ratings in Company Data-   13. System links Enrichment Data with Receipts in Company Data-   14. System links Enrichment Data with Reviews in Company Data-   15. System links Enrichment Data with Rewards Rules in Company Data-   16. System links Enrichment Data with Schedules in Company Data-   17. System links Enrichment Data with Surveys in Company Data-   18. System links Enrichment Data with Transaction Data in Company    Data-   19. System links Enrichment Data with GTINs in Company Data

Rewards Method

Referring to FIG. 10, in an exemplary embodiment, a flowchartillustrates a reward method 200. The method 200 utilizes Content andPayment Data to calculate and optionally fulfill Rewards for one or moreCustomers. One advantage of the methods and systems is its ability tomanage a universal Rewards program where Customers could earn Rewardswhenever they engage in a Transaction with any Company that utilizes theSystem versus the traditional process where Rewards are accumulated on aCompany by Company basis. Further Rewards can be calculated byaggregating Customer data such that a group of Customers could earn morerewards than a single Customer alone. As an example, the concept of agroup or clique (or a group of Customers that are associated together insome way within the system) could allow a Company to increase its saleswhile allowing the Customers to earn additional Rewards by meeting theRewards criteria jointly. Finally, Rewards can be fulfilled in a varietyof ways. For example, a credit could be issued to a credit card used, ora check could be mailed for the Reward amount.

Rewards Analysis, (step 201), the act of identifying if any Reward Rulesapply, occurs. Next, Rewards Processing (step 202), the act ofcalculating and/or fulfilling Rewards based on Reward Rules, occurs.

Various exemplary embodiments are contemplated of the method 200including, without limitation:

-   1. Reward Rules apply to one or more Companies and one or more    Customers and are fulfilled by crediting the Customer's credit/debit    card or other payment form/method-   2. Reward Rules apply to one or more Companies and one or more    Customers and are fulfilled by crediting the Customer's bank account-   3. Reward Rules apply to one or more Companies and one or more    Customers and are fulfilled by issuing the Customer a check-   4. Reward Rules apply to one or more Companies and one or more    Customers and are fulfilled by issuing the Customer a wire-   5. Reward Rules apply to one or more Companies and one or more    Customers and are fulfilled by issuing the Customer an automated    clearing house (ACH)-   6. Reward Rules apply to one or more Companies and one or more    Customers and are fulfilled by issuing the Customer a person to    person (P2P) payment-   7. Reward Rules apply to one or more Companies and one or more    Customers and are fulfilled by issuing the Customer more Rewards-   8. Reward Rules apply to one or more Companies and one or more    Customers and are fulfilled by issuing the Customer a Coupon-   9. Reward Rules apply to one or more Companies and one or more    Customers and are fulfilled by issuing the Customer a credit/debit    card-   10. Reward Rules apply to one or more Companies and one or more    Customers and are fulfilled by providing the Customer products    and/or services of any kind-   11. Reward Rules apply to one or more Companies and one or more    Customers and are fulfilled by issuing the Customer currency

Coupon Method

Referring to FIG. 11, in an exemplary embodiment, a flowchartillustrates a coupon method 220. One advantages of the System is itsability to allow Companies to set thresholds for Coupons which arecalculated after each Coupon Validation is done. For instance, maybe aCompany would like to offer 10% off everything in the store but is onlywilling to fund up to $500, or maybe the same Company only wants tooffer redemptions for the first ten Customers. Once the System validatesthe Coupon (step 223), it can then lower the count available based onthe criteria. Further, another advantage of the System is that theCoupon Submission can be handled in a variety of ways from SMS to aphone call. If the coupon is not valid (step 224), the method 220 ends(step 225), otherwise coupon processing is performed (step 226).

Coupon Presentment (step 221), the act of presenting a Coupon to aCompany, occurs. Next, Coupon Submission (step 222), the act of CouponID being received by System, occurs. Next, Coupon Analysis (step 223),the act of comparing a Coupon ID received during Coupon Submission withCoupon IDs that exist is System to identify if there is a match, occurs.If the Coupon ID received during Coupon Submission exists within System,Coupon Processing (step 224), the act of providing approval or declinefor Coupon redemption and, based on approval or decline, adjusting thecoupon counts and/or other associated data, occurs. As mentioned above,this step can include reduces the number of Coupons left for redemption.If the Coupon ID received during Coupon Submission does not exist in theSystem, the process would end (step 225) and could provide an error.

Various exemplary embodiments are contemplated of the method 220including, without limitation:

-   1. Coupon Present is done using System user interface-   2. Coupon Present is done using email, SMS, instant messenger, fax,    twitter or another type of messaging that is received by System-   3. Coupon Present is done using Device interfaced with System-   4. Coupon Present is done using Third Party System interfaced with    System-   5. Coupon Present is done using System file mover systems, including    FTP-   6. Coupon Present is done using System application programming    interface (API)

Sharing Method

Referring to FIG. 12, in an exemplary embodiment, a flowchartillustrates a sharing method 240. The method 240 allows Content to beshared with Third Parties and Third Party Systems based on SharingRules. This allows the Content to be used in useful and unique ways. Forinstance, the System could automatically register products withmanufacturers when the Product Keys or GTINs are identified on areceipt. Or the Company Data could be shared with social networks, suchas Facebook and the like, allowing the Company to enter information onceand have it distributed through multiple channels.

Sharing Analysis (step 241), the act of identifying if any Sharing Rulesapply, occurs. Next, Sharing Processing (step 242), the act of sharingContent and/or Payment Data based on Sharing Rules, occurs.

Various exemplary embodiments are contemplated of the method 240including, without limitation:

-   1. Sharing Processing shares data with other Companies-   2. Sharing Processing shares data with Customers-   3. Sharing Processing shares data with Third Parties-   4. Sharing Processing shares data with Third Party Systems

Referring to FIG. 13, in an exemplary embodiment, a block diagramillustrates a smart device 400 for use in the various systems andmethods described herein. The smart device 400 can be a digital devicethat, in terms of hardware architecture, generally includes a processor430, input/output (I/O) interfaces 432, a network interface 434, a datastore 436, and memory 438. It should be appreciated by those of ordinaryskill in the art that FIG. 13 depicts the smart device 400 in anoversimplified manner, and a practical embodiment can include additionalcomponents and suitably configured processing logic to support known orconventional operating features that are not described in detail herein.The components (430, 432, 434, 436, 438) are communicatively coupled viaa local interface 442. The local interface 442 can be, for example butnot limited to, one or more buses or other wired or wirelessconnections, as is known in the art. The local interface 442 can haveadditional elements, which are omitted for simplicity, such ascontrollers, buffers (caches), drivers, repeaters, and receivers, amongmany others, to enable communications. Further, the local interface 442may include address, control, and/or data connections to enableappropriate communications among the aforementioned components.

The processor 430 is a hardware device for executing softwareinstructions. The processor 430 can be any custom made or commerciallyavailable processor, a central processing unit (CPU), an auxiliaryprocessor among several processors associated with the smart device 400,a semiconductor-based microprocessor (in the form of a microchip or chipset), or generally any device for executing software instructions. Whenthe smart device 400 is in operation, the processor 430 is configured toexecute software stored within the memory 438, to communicate data toand from the memory 438, and to generally control operations of thesmart device 400 pursuant to the software instructions. In an exemplaryembodiment, the processor 430 may include a mobile optimized processorsuch as optimized for power consumption and mobile applications.

The I/O interfaces 432 can be used to receive user input from and/or forproviding system output. User input can be provided via, for example, akeypad, a touch screen, a scroll ball, a scroll bar, buttons, bar codescanner, and the like. System output can be provided via a displaydevice such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), touch screen, wearabledisplay devices such as armband or shoulder mounted device, an earpieceor headphones, glasses with a virtualized display included therein, andthe like. The I/O interfaces 432 can also include, for example, a serialport, a parallel port, a small computer system interface (SCSI), aninfrared (IR) interface, a radio frequency (RF) interface, a universalserial bus (USB) interface, proprietary vendor interconnects (e.g., 30pin adapter, 19 pin adapter, etc.), an audio jack, and the like. The I/Ointerfaces 432 can include a graphical user interface (GUI) that enablesa user to interact with the smart device 400 Additionally, the I/Ointerfaces 342 may further include an imaging device, i.e. camera, videocamera, etc., location device such as GPS, etc.

The network interface 434 enables wireless communication to an externalaccess device or network, such as to a wireless access device. Anynumber of suitable wireless data communication protocols, techniques, ormethodologies can be supported by the network interface 434, including,without limitation: RF; LMR; IrDA (infrared); Bluetooth; ZigBee (andother variants of the IEEE 802.15 protocol); IEEE 802.11 (anyvariation); IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX or any other variation); Direct SequenceSpread Spectrum; Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum; Long Term Evolution(LTE); cellular/wireless/cordless telecommunication protocols (e.g.3G/4G, etc.); wireless home network communication protocols; pagingnetwork protocols; magnetic induction; satellite data communicationprotocols; wireless hospital or health care facility network protocolssuch as those operating in the WMTS bands; GPRS; proprietary wirelessdata communication protocols such as variants of Wireless USB; and anyother protocols for wireless communication.

The data store 436 can be used to store data. The data store 436 caninclude any of volatile memory elements (e.g., random access memory(RAM, such as DRAM, SRAM, SDRAM, and the like)), nonvolatile memoryelements (e.g., ROM, hard drive, tape, CDROM, and the like), andcombinations thereof. Moreover, the data store 436 can incorporateelectronic, magnetic, optical, and/or other types of storage media. Thememory 348 can include any of volatile memory elements (e.g., randomaccess memory (RAM, such as DRAM, SRAM, SDRAM, etc.)), nonvolatilememory elements (e.g., ROM, hard drive, etc.), and combinations thereof.Moreover, the memory 438 may incorporate electronic, magnetic, optical,and/or other types of storage media. Note that the memory 438 can have adistributed architecture, where various components are situated remotelyfrom one another, but can be accessed by the processor 30.

The software in memory 438 can include one or more software programs,each of which includes an ordered listing of executable instructions forimplementing logical functions. In the example of FIG. 13, the softwarein the memory system 438 includes a suitable operating system (O/S) 444and programs 446. The operating system 444 essentially controls theexecution of other computer programs, and provides scheduling,input-output control, file and data management, memory management, andcommunication control and related services. The programs 446 can includevarious applications, add-ons, etc. configured to provide end userfunctionality with the smart device 400. For example, exemplary programs446 can include, but not limited to, a web browser, social networkingapplications, streaming media applications, games, mapping and locationapplications, electronic mail applications, financial applications, andthe like.

In an exemplary embodiment, the programs 446 include instructions that,when executed, cause the processor to implement the channel 30 via anoverlaid software component, e.g. a browser plugin and the like, thatidentifies transactions based on the payment key utilizing the methodsdescribed herein. Once transactions are identified, the other variousmethods can be implemented as described herein with respect to thechannel 30. Further, while the smart device 400 is described in thecontext of a mobile device, the smart device 400 could also be adesktop, laptop, tablet, could service etc or similar device, concept orplatform.

Referring to FIG. 14, in an exemplary embodiment, a block diagramillustrates an exemplary implementation of a server 500 for use in thevarious methods described herein. The server 500 can be a digitalcomputer that, in terms of hardware architecture, generally includes aprocessor 502, input/output (I/O) interfaces 504, a network interface506, a data store 508, and memory 510. It should be appreciated by thoseof ordinary skill in the art that FIG. 14 depicts the server 500 in anoversimplified manner, and a practical embodiment may include additionalcomponents and suitably configured processing logic to support known orconventional operating features that are not described in detail herein.The components (502, 504, 506, 508, and 510) are communicatively coupledvia a local interface 512. The local interface 512 can be, for examplebut not limited to, one or more buses or other wired or wirelessconnections, as is known in the art. The local interface 512 can haveadditional elements, which are omitted for simplicity, such ascontrollers, buffers (caches), drivers, repeaters, and receivers, amongmany others, to enable communications. Further, the local interface 512can include address, control, and/or data connections to enableappropriate communications among the aforementioned components.

The processor 502 is a hardware device for executing softwareinstructions. The processor 502 can be any custom made or commerciallyavailable processor, a central processing unit (CPU), an auxiliaryprocessor among several processors associated with the server 500, asemiconductor-based microprocessor (in the form of a microchip or chipset), or generally any device for executing software instructions. Whenthe server 500 is in operation, the processor 502 is configured toexecute software stored within the memory 510, to communicate data toand from the memory 510, and to generally control operations of theserver 500 pursuant to the software instructions. The I/O interfaces 504can be used to receive user input from and/or for providing systemoutput to one or more devices or components. User input can be providedvia, for example, a keyboard, touch pad, and/or a mouse. System outputcan be provided via a display device and a printer (not shown). I/Ointerfaces 504 can include, for example, a serial port, a parallel port,a small computer system interface (SCSI), a serial ATA (SATA), a fibrechannel, Infiniband, iSCSI, a PCI Express interface (PCI-x), an infrared(IR) interface, a radio frequency (RF) interface, and/or a universalserial bus (USB) interface.

The network interface 506 can be used to enable the server 500 tocommunicate on a network, such as to communicate with the smart device400. The network interface 506 can include, for example, an Ethernetcard or adapter (e.g., 10BaseT, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, 10 GbE)or a wireless local area network (WLAN) card or adapter (e.g.,802.11a/b/g/n). The network interface 506 can include address, control,and/or data connections to enable appropriate communications on thenetwork. A data store 508 can be used to store data. The data store 508can include any of volatile memory elements (e.g., random access memory(RAM, such as DRAM, SRAM, SDRAM, and the like)), nonvolatile memoryelements (e.g., ROM, hard drive, tape, CDROM, and the like), andcombinations thereof. Moreover, the data store 508 can incorporateelectronic, magnetic, optical, and/or other types of storage media. Inone example, the data store 508 can be located internal to the server500 such as, for example, an internal hard drive connected to the localinterface 512 in the server 500. Additionally in another embodiment, thedata store 508 can be located external to the server 500 such as, forexample, an external hard drive connected to the I/O interfaces 104(e.g., SCSI or USB connection). In a further embodiment, the data store508 can be connected to the server 500 through a network, such as, forexample, a network attached file server.

The memory 510 can include any of volatile memory elements (e.g., randomaccess memory (RAM, such as DRAM, SRAM, SDRAM, etc.)), nonvolatilememory elements (e.g., ROM, hard drive, tape, CDROM, etc.), andcombinations thereof. Moreover, the memory 510 can incorporateelectronic, magnetic, optical, and/or other types of storage media. Notethat the memory 510 can have a distributed architecture, where variouscomponents are situated remotely from one another, but can be accessedby the processor 502. The software in memory 510 can include one or moresoftware programs, each of which includes an ordered listing ofexecutable instructions for implementing logical functions. The softwarein the memory 510 includes a suitable operating system (O/S) 514 and oneor more programs 516. The operating system 514 essentially controls theexecution of other computer programs, such as the one or more programs516, and provides scheduling, input-output control, file and datamanagement, memory management, and communication control and relatedservices. The one or more programs 516 may be configured to implementthe various processes, algorithms, methods, techniques, etc. describedherein.

In an exemplary embodiment, the server 500 is configured to execute asystem implementing the various methods described herein. For example,the server 500 can be a web server or the like that maintains thechannel 30 enabling the companies and customers to interact based on thepayment keys from the transaction 40.

In an exemplary embodiment, the server 500 can be part of one or moredevices in the cloud offering services to customers and companies tocreate the channel 30. For example, the server 500 can be a centralizedrepository of information for the channel 30. The customers can haveapplications on their devices, i.e. the devices 400, such as a browserplug-in that can identify transactions 40 using the Payment Keys andprovide access to the channel 30 which is hosted in the cloud and/or onthe server 500. The company can interact with the channel 30 through theserver 500, providing virtually any type of information to the customer.The customer can activate the channel once the application on theirdevice determines a transaction 40 is associated with the channel 30.For example, assume the customer is viewing transaction data online,e.g. on a website, in a software package, etc., the application canprovide some indicia that a particular transaction is part of thechannel 30. For example, in a website, the browser plug-in could displayan icon over the transaction. The user could click on or over the iconand information could be displayed in the channel 30, i.e. a pop-up, amenu, a click-through, etc.

Referring to FIG. 15A, in an exemplary embodiment, a payment network 600is illustrated showing an overlaid system 700 implementing the systemsand methods described herein to offer the channel 30 on the existingpayment network 600. The payment network 600 includes a customer 602making a purchase from a retailer 604 which sends the data to anacquirer 606 which sends the data to an issuer 608. As described herein,transaction and/or payment data flows between these entities 602, 604,606, 608. Of course, legal monetary exchange also occurs whereby theretailer 604 receives payment for the goods or services from thecustomer 602 through the acquirer 606 and the issuer 608. Note, those ofordinary skill in the art will recognize the payment network 600 isshown for illustration purposes and any number of differentarchitectures could be used. Further, while referred to a customer 602and retailer 604, these entities could be payor, payee, merchant,company, etc. Of note, there is payment data that is provided throughthe payment network 600 in addition to value exchange. It is via thispayment data that the systems and methods enable the channel 30 betweenthe customer 602 and the retailer 604.

The overlaid system 700 implements the various systems and methodsdescribed herein with respect to the channel 30 and the associatedmethods. Of note, the overlaid system 700 sits on or is in addition tothe existing payment network 600. There is no requirement to modify theexisting payment network 600 which is a key advantage to leverage thechannel 30. The overlaid system 700 can be formed by one or moreservers, such as the server 500, as well as one or more devices, such asthe smart devices 400. That is, the overlaid system 700 can be a serverfor interfacing with the merchants, retailers, etc. for defining paymentkeys and the like. The overlaid system 700 can further be client-sidedevices for users to identify transactions that match the payment key toopen up the associated channel 30. The overlaid system 700 is notnecessarily tied to the issuer 608 or the acquirer 606. Rather, theoverlaid system 700 can interoperate with all issuers or acquires thusexpanding the usefulness and scope of the channel 30. As such, theoverlaid system 700 focuses on interoperating with existing paymentnetworks within associated confines related to static data as well asbeing able to operate across many different payment networksconcurrently.

Referring to FIG. 15B, in an exemplary embodiment, a flow diagramillustrates an exemplary method 650 using the overlaid system 700.Customer 702 makes Payment to Company 703 (step 1), which enters Paymentinto Device (step 2). Device 704 then transmits Payment to Processor 705(step 3). Alternatively, Company 703 could utilize Device 704 totransmit Payment to Aggregator 707 (step 5), which in turn transmits thePayment to Processor 705 (step 6). The Processor 705 then transmitsPayment to Acquirer 706 (step 4) which interacts with Issuer 709 throughAssociations 708 (steps 5 & 6). The Issuer 709 then debits the Customer702 (step 7) and the Acquirer 706 credits the Company 703 (step 8). Thiscompletes Payment Processing. Next, Company 703 populates System 700with Company Data (step 9). In avoidance of doubt the Company Data andother Content can be provided to System 700 from any authorized entityor system in the process, including Devices, which could transmitsTransaction Data for example. The Customer 702 can receive the contentpublished by Company 703 or Third Parties or Third Party Systems, inthree primary ways based on this example. First, the Customer 702 coulduse local software, such as browser extension, to transmit Payment datato System 701 (step 10) to match Company 703 and display Company Data.Second, Issuer 709 could transmit Payment Data to System 701 (step 11)to match Company 703 and display Company data when Customer viewsPayment Data provided by Issuer 709 via paper or online statement (step14). Third, PFM 710 can gather Payment Data from Issuer 709 (step 12),then transmit Payment Data to System 700 (step 13) to match Company 703and display Company data when Customer 702 views Payment Data Customerviews Payment Data provided by PFM 710 via paper or online statement(step 15).

Referring to FIGS. 16A-16B, in an exemplary embodiment, a flowchartillustrates an exemplary payment method 800. A Customer makes a Paymentto a Company (step 801), which enters the Payment into a Device (step802). For example, the Device could be, without limitation, apoint-of-sale (POS) device, a credit/debit card reader, a near-fieldcommunication device, a cash register, an online payment site, and thelike. The exemplary method 800 can use a processor or aggregator (step803). The Device can transmit the Payment to a Processor (step 804).Alternatively, the Company could utilize the Device to transmit thePayment to an Aggregator (step 805), which in turn transmits the Paymentto the Processor (step 806). The Processor then transmits the Payment toan Acquirer (step 807) which interacts with an Issuer throughAssociations (step 808). The Issuer then debits the Customer (step 809)and the Acquirer credits the Company (step 810). This completes PaymentProcessing (step 811). Next, the Company populates a System with CompanyData (step 812). In avoidance of doubt, the Company Data and otherContent can be provided to the System from any authorized entity orsystem in the process, including Devices, which could transmitTransaction Data for example. The Customer can receive the Payment Datathree primary ways based on this example but other ways or methods arecontemplated (step 815). First, the Customer could use local software,such as browser extension, to transmit Payment Data to the System tomatch Company and display Company Data. Second, the Issuer couldtransmit Payment Data to the System to match the Company and displayCompany Data when Customer views Payment Data provided by the Issuer viapaper or online statement. Third, A PFM can gather Payment Data from theIssuer, then transmit Payment Data to the System to match the Companyand display Company Data when Customer views Payment Data Customer viewsPayment Data provided by the PFM via paper or online statement. Whenviewing the Payment Data, if there is a Payment Key match (step 816),the channel can be enabled (step 817).

Referring to FIG. 17, in an exemplary embodiment, a flow diagramillustrates a channel method 900. First, a Company 604 publishes contentto the overlaid system 700 (step 902). This content can be anythingenabled by the channel 30 as described herein. Next, a customer 602 logsinto an online banking site 904, a personal finance manager (PFM) site,a mobile application, etc. (step 906). Payment/transaction data istransmitted from the site 904 to the overlaid system 700 for matching(step 908), and upon matching, the overlaid system 700 returns publishedcontent for the matches (step 910). The published content is displayedto the customer 602 (step 912).

While the systems and methods utilize known values that do not need tomatch a business name, the Payment Key (i.e., the combination of allstatic field values) can appear in different places within the paymentdata on an issuer by issuer basis. Therefore, in addition to its uniqueapproach and systems for matching the merchants, the system also employslogic to find the matching value within a set of data. Typically it canbe done with a wild card search.

In addition, while the system can rely on multiple data fields, not justthe merchant name field, some fields can be truncated by the issuer.Therefore, the system could employ logic to identify probability of amatch based on the number of fields matched and the number of characterswithin the field matched. Again the values are irrelevant and have notto do with the probability . . . it is simply a probability based on thenumber of characters of a Payment Key present in the payment data. Whilethe system will likely not accept anything less than a 100% probabilitymatch, the present inventions allows for and contemplates the case of aless than 100% match.

As described herein, conventional systems and methods have constraintsin being able to accurately identify individual merchants and locationsrelying on narrow merchant name data solely. Advantageously, the systemsand methods described herein do not require even a portion of themerchant's business name to be able to identify the merchant from aspecified set of transaction data. This novel aspect is a driving factorin enabling creation of the channel 30 since every the transaction datacan be completely and accurately correlated to a specific merchant andlocation. Furthermore, the systems and methods described herein are ableto not only identify the merchant and location but also the specificdevice that was involved in the transaction.

It will be appreciated that some exemplary embodiments described hereinmay include one or more generic or specialized processors (“one or moreprocessors”) such as microprocessors, digital signal processors,customized processors, and field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) andunique stored program instructions (including both software andfirmware) that control the one or more processors to implement, inconjunction with certain non-processor circuits, some, most, or all ofthe functions of the methods and/or systems described herein.Alternatively, some or all functions may be implemented by a statemachine that has no stored program instructions, or in one or moreapplication specific integrated circuits (ASICs), in which each functionor some combinations of certain of the functions are implemented ascustom logic. Of course, a combination of the aforementioned approachesmay be used. Moreover, some exemplary embodiments may be implemented asa non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computerreadable code stored thereon for programming a computer, server,appliance, device, etc. each of which may include a processor to performmethods as described and claimed herein. Examples of suchcomputer-readable storage mediums include, but are not limited to, ahard disk, an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, a ROM(Read Only Memory), a PROM (Programmable Read Only Memory), an EPROM(Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory), an EEPROM (ElectricallyErasable Programmable Read Only Memory), Flash memory, and the like.When stored in the non-transitory computer readable medium, software caninclude instructions executable by a processor that, in response to suchexecution, cause a processor or any other circuitry to perform a set ofoperations, steps, methods, processes, algorithms, etc.

Although the present disclosure has been illustrated and describedherein with reference to preferred embodiments and specific examplesthereof, it will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in theart that other embodiments and examples may perform similar functionsand/or achieve like results. All such equivalent embodiments andexamples are within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure andare intended to be covered by the following claims.

1-19. (canceled)
 20. A computer-implemented method, comprising:analyzing payment data related to a customer; determining a companybased on one or more attributes of the payment data; creating anengagement channel between the customer and the company; and displayingdata provided by or on behalf of the company to the customer through theengagement channel.
 21. The computer-implemented method of claim 20,wherein the payment data is related to one or more payments, one or moreissuers and/or one or more payment numbers for a payment.
 22. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 20, wherein the determining thecompany comprises determining a location of the company.
 23. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 20, wherein determining the companyincludes determining the company's device used to generate the paymentdata.
 24. The computer-implemented method of claim 20, wherein the datadisplayed to the customer through the engagement channel comprises dataother than rewards, loyalty points, coupons, discounts or other forms offinancial or non-financial incentives.
 25. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 20, wherein the customer receives rewards and couponswithout having to request the rewards or coupons.
 26. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 20, wherein the payment dataoriginates from banking applications comprising online and applicationbased banking, online and application based personal financialmanagement systems, aggregation data providers, and online and/orapplication based accounting software.
 27. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 20, wherein the engagement channel is displayed withbanking applications comprising online and application based banking,online and application based personal financial management systems,online and application based accounting software, a portal, news feeds,social media, telephone, fax, email, instant messenger, and/or mail. 28.The computer-implemented method of claim 20, further comprising:installing an application or browser add-in on a device associated withthe customer; viewing the payment data on the device by the customer;and displaying the engagement channel on the device responsive to theidentifying the company from the one or more attributes of the paymentdata.
 29. The computer-implemented method of claim 20, wherein thedetermining the payment key comprises: providing the company a paymentmechanism with known characteristics; performing a sample payment usingthe payment mechanism; analyzing payment data associated with the samplepayment; deriving a payment key based on the known characteristics andassociated static data in the payment data; and linking the payment keyto the specific company.
 30. The computer-implemented method of claim29, wherein if the derived payment key is duplicative of a payment keyassociated with another company, the determining the payment key furthercomprises: determining one or more static fields for the company,wherein the one or more static fields are used in payment data for thecompany; adjusting one or more of the one of static fields; deriving thepayment key from the one or more static fields, wherein the payment keyis no longer duplicative of a payment key associated with the anothercompany based on the adjusting; and linking the payment key to thespecific.
 31. The computer-implemented method of claim 20, wherein thedetermining the payment key comprises: analyzing merchant data relatedto a company; deriving the payment key based on static data in themerchant data; and linking the payment key to the company
 32. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 31, wherein if the derived paymentkey is duplicative of a payment key associated with another company, thedetermining the payment key further comprises: determining one or morestatic fields for the company, wherein the one or more static fields areused in payment data for the company; adjusting one or more of the oneof static fields; deriving the payment key from the one or more staticfields, wherein the payment key is no longer duplicative of a paymentkey associated with the another company based on the adjusting; andlinking the payment key to the company.
 33. A server, comprising: anetwork interface communicatively coupled to a company and a customer; aprocessor communicatively coupled to the network interface; and memorystoring instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to:analyze payment data related to the customer; determine the companybased on one or more attributes of the payment data; create anengagement channel between the customer and the company; and cause dataprovided by or on behalf of the company to be provided to the customerthrough the engagement channel.
 34. The server of claim 33, wherein thepayment data is related to one or more payments, one or more issuersand/or one or more payment numbers for a payment.
 35. The server ofclaim 33, wherein the payment data originates from banking applicationscomprising online and application based banking, online and applicationbased personal financial management systems, aggregation data providers,and online and/or application based accounting software.
 36. The serverof claim 33, wherein the engagement channel is displayed with bankingapplications comprising online and application based banking, online andapplication based personal financial management systems, online andapplication based accounting software, a portal, news feeds, socialmedia, telephone, fax, email, instant messenger, and/or mail.
 37. Adevice operated by a customer, comprising: a network interfacecommunicatively coupled to a server on a network; a processorcommunicatively coupled to the network interface; and memory storinginstructions that, when executed, cause the processor to: execute anapplication or browser add-in; analyze payment data related to apurchase by the customer; determine a company based on one or moreattributes of the payment data; display an engagement channel betweenthe customer and the company; and display data provided by or on behalfof the company to the customer through the engagement channel.